Suburban Woman's Murder In Wisconsin Resembles 2004 Kidnapping Case
CHICAGO (CBS) -- An Arlington Heights man was being held on $1 million bail in Wisconsin, charged with killing his estranged wife with a hatchet, after she had fled to Mount Pleasant to stay with friends who offered her shelter from her husband.
Cristian Loga-Negru, 38, was arrested early Thursday at a motel in the Racine area, after allegedly kidnapping his wife and striking her in the head with a hatchet Wednesday night.
Witnesses told police they heard someone screaming around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, and saw a woman being dragged across the front lawn of a home in Mount Pleasant, and into a vehicle, which then drove off.
Police later got a call from a Super 8 Motel in Racine County, from a person reporting there was a woman bleeding from the head.
Police found Loga-Negru and his wife at the motel, and took the woman to a hospital in Milwaukee, where she died. She has not yet been identified.
Loga-Negru was arrested, and was due in court Friday afternoon in Racine.
The murder brings to mind the story of another woman who was kidnapped in Racine County almost 11 years ago.
"He ambushed me from behind. Hit me in the head numerous times with a baseball bat," said Teri Jendusa-Nicolai, whose ex-husband stuffed her into a garbage can, filled it with snow and left her to die in a Wheeling, Illinois, storage locker in 2004.
Luckily for Jendusa-Nicolai, she was rescued, and she has since become an advocate for victims of domestic violence.
She said the story of the Arlington Heights woman's murder is heart-rending.
"You know, you do everything right. You call the police. You leave. It is really frustrating because you think, 'What do I have to do to stop these people from doing things like that?'" she said.
