No Bail For Man Charged With Killing Glen Ellyn Teen In 1985
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The man charged with raping and killing a suburban teenager 30 years ago made his first court appearance on Monday, when he was ordered held without bond.
Kristina Wesselman, 15, was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in broad daylight while walking home from a grocery store in 1985.
On Sunday, DuPage County authorities announced 62-year-old Michael R. Jones, of Champaign, had been charged with two counts of murder and one count of aggravated criminal sexual assault in Kristina's death.
Thirty years after Kristina's lifeless body was found half-naked along a prairie path near her home in unincorporated Glen Ellyn, the emotions were still raw for her brother, Bill.
"My initial reaction is shock and awe. We've been waiting for news like this for 30 years, and it finally came," Bill Wesselman said at a news conference in Wheaton on Monday. "Seeing him in the courtroom today … it was nice to finally have someone of interest."
His sister was walking home from a Jewel grocery store near Butterfield Road and Route 53 on July 21, 1985, when she was ambushed from behind, sexually assaulted, and stabbed to death.
Jones was arrested Sunday, after DNA taken from the victim matched a sample he provided in July, when he pleaded guilty in a separate domestic battery case. Jones has claimed he's innocent, but DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said the DNA tells a different story.
"This profile would be expected to occur in approximately 1 in 1.5 quadrillion," he said.
When shown Kristina's picture, Jones told investigators: "As god is my witness, I've never seen her before."
Two DuPage County Sheriff's deputies flew to Colorado to inform Wesselman's mother of the arrest in person.
Berlin said he intends to prosecute the case himself, in hopes of sending Jones to prison for the rest of his life.
"It's been more than 30 years since the horrific murder of Kristy Wesselman. During that time, the pain and the grief and the fear felt by the Wesselman family and the entire community has never gone away. With the arrest and charging of this defendant, however, the family of Kristy Wesselman and the people of DuPage County are one step closer to obtaining the full measure of justice that they so richly deserve," Berlin said.
Prosecutors said Jones was out on parole on a 1977 rape case in Cook County when he assaulted and killed Wesselman. Berlin said, in that case, he crashed his car into a woman riding her bicycle, tied her up, dragged her to his home, and repeatedly raped her in the basement. He served seven years in prison for that crime, and was paroled in 1983.
