Speaker 1: This podcast is based on information sourced primarily from police
Speaker 1: and media reports, but certain names and other identifying details
Speaker 1: may have been changed or altered for privacy and security reasons.
Speaker 1: While the events in cases discussed are based on real investigations,
Speaker 1: some aspects may be simplified for time and for narrative purposes.
Speaker 1: Voice actors have been used to read from statements or documents.
Speaker 1: All information presented is intended solely to inform and raise awareness.
Speaker 1: Hosts may discuss theories regarding the cases examined in this podcast,
Speaker 1: but such discussions are not intended to and should not
Speaker 1: be considered by the listener to be legal conclusions. All
Speaker 1: persons discussed are considered innocent until proven guilty in a
Speaker 1: court of law. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: This is Chief Anna Lally. Welcome to Somebody Knows Something,
Speaker 2: a podcast from the Elgin Police Department's Cold Case Unit.
Speaker 2: In this podcast, we will shed new light on cold
Speaker 2: cases in the city of Elgin by sharing untold details
Speaker 2: and by encouraging anyone with information to come forward. You
Speaker 2: will come along with real cold case detectives as they
Speaker 2: investigate active cold cases in real time and seek justice
Speaker 2: for the victims and closure for their families. We believe
Speaker 2: that the Elgin Police Department and our community can work
Speaker 2: together to bring closure to cold cases because we know
Speaker 2: that in these cases, somebody knows something.
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to somebody knows something. The Elgin Police
Speaker 3: Department Cold Case Podcast, My name is Detective Andrew Howton
Speaker 3: an Undetective Chris Hall.
Speaker 4: Last episode, we visited sites related to Whyteria's time here
Speaker 4: in Elgin. We discussed our first two theories for her case.
Speaker 4: For this episode, we were hitting the road and traveling
Speaker 4: to joliet Illinois to search for more answers in Wateria's case.
Speaker 4: As we consider our theory that Waititia left Elgin and
Speaker 4: traveled to Joliette.
Speaker 3: Before we head to Joliette, let's talk a little bit
Speaker 3: about the city and its history for people who were
Speaker 3: not from Illinois or maybe not familiar with it. Joliette
Speaker 3: is located in will County, Illinois, approximately forty miles southwest
Speaker 3: of Chicago and just a.
Speaker 5: Little over fifty miles from Elgin.
Speaker 3: Joliette was founded in eighteen thirty one, four years before Elgin,
Speaker 3: and in the years after the Blackhawk War, settlers flocked
Speaker 3: to the area because it became known as fertile soil
Speaker 3: and had access to the Splains River. By eighteen fifty one,
Speaker 3: the city of Joliette was incorporated and had a population of.
Speaker 5: Just under twenty seven hundred people.
Speaker 4: The Joliette of today boasts the population of overhall hundred
Speaker 4: and fifty thousand people, making it the third largest city
Speaker 4: in Illinois, behind Chicago and Aurora. But even in the
Speaker 4: early nineteen eighties, Joliette was already growing. It had become
Speaker 4: a moderately sized city with the population of around seventy
Speaker 4: eight thousand people in their early nineteen eighties, almost identical
Speaker 4: to Elgin's population. Joliette at that time was the eighth
Speaker 4: largest city in Illinois and Elgin was the ninth. So
Speaker 4: when Waitiia went missing, she was potentially leaving behind a
Speaker 4: blue collar industrial hub for another. And because both were
Speaker 4: large urban centers, there were at least two major ways
Speaker 4: to travel to them.
Speaker 3: The first mode of transportation from Elgin to Joliette was
Speaker 3: by the Highway. Joliette is situated along the historic Route
Speaker 3: sixty six, which was established on November eleventh, nineteen twenty six,
Speaker 3: and ran nearly twenty five hundred miles across eight states,
Speaker 3: from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California. The highway was
Speaker 3: paved in nineteen thirty eight. It connected hundreds of small
Speaker 3: rural communities to larger urban centers, including Joliette. Since Wateria
Speaker 3: didn't have a car, and you know that she was
Speaker 3: allegedly spotted at a bus stop somewhere downtown, a stop
Speaker 3: that we think we've identified on Grove Street, a bus
Speaker 3: seems like the most logical option for her to use
Speaker 3: the highway system, but it is possible she could have
Speaker 3: gotten a ride from someone else or found another way
Speaker 3: to travel. Again, that's why we need more information about
Speaker 3: her social circles here in Elgin.
Speaker 4: Taking that into consideration, we did some research into bus
Speaker 4: lines from the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties, and there
Speaker 4: were two main companies that operated intercity and interstate buses
Speaker 4: in Illinois. The first company was Greyhound, which most people
Speaker 4: are probably pretty familiar with, and the second was Trailways.
Speaker 4: According to the New York Times, by nineteen eighty three,
Speaker 4: Greyhound operated nearly four thousand buses in the United States
Speaker 4: and carried approximately sixty percent of all inner city bus traffic.
Speaker 4: Trailways also operated buses, but most people today probably have
Speaker 4: never heard of them. In fact, Trailways disappeared nineteen eighty
Speaker 4: seven when Greyhound bought the company and fully absorbed it.
Speaker 3: Chris Beth and I did a lot of digging and
Speaker 3: located some maps that depicted routes for both companies from
Speaker 3: the late nineteen seventies and into the early nineteen eighties.
Speaker 3: As far as we can tell, at least at this point,
Speaker 3: we have not found any direct Greyhound or Trailway buses
Speaker 3: from Elgin directly to Joliet or Elgin directly to Aurora,
Speaker 3: which kind of makes sense. Chicago's close enough that it's
Speaker 3: a major hub. Based on the maps we did locate
Speaker 3: Whyteria could have taken a Greyhound bus from Elgin to Chicago.
Speaker 3: Then from Chicago she could basically get anywhere in the country.
Speaker 3: There were Trailway buses that ran from Chicago to both Aurora,
Speaker 3: where she had previously lived, and a Joliette and multiple
Speaker 3: bus lines of all sorts that come out of Chicago
Speaker 3: to regional cities or other areas around the country. So
Speaker 3: if she did take an intercity bus like Trailways or Greyhound.
Speaker 3: It seems most likely that she would go to Chicago
Speaker 3: and use that main hub to then get back out
Speaker 3: to another suburb like.
Speaker 4: Joliet Additionally, they were commuter trains in the nineteen eighties
Speaker 4: as well, but Metra as we know it today didn't
Speaker 4: exist yet. The Regional Transit Authority or RTA operated area
Speaker 4: train lines which later became Metro, and there were no
Speaker 4: direct train routes from Elgin to Juliette or Aurora. Similar
Speaker 4: to the Greyhound and Trailways bus routes, Waityia would have
Speaker 4: had to take a commuter train to downtown Chicago on
Speaker 4: the Milwaukee West Line. The train station was just a
Speaker 4: few blocks from the Douglas Hotel, as we described in
Speaker 4: our last episode, so it is possible that the witnesses
Speaker 4: who reportedly saw Whitia possibly waiting for a bus could
Speaker 4: have potentially seen her waiting to walk a little further
Speaker 4: to that train station.
Speaker 3: If Waityia did take a train to Chicago, she would
Speaker 3: have had a ton of options to get anywhere in
Speaker 3: Illinois or anywhere in the country.
Speaker 5: Really.
Speaker 3: If she wanted to go to Aurora, Waityia could have
Speaker 3: taken the Burlington Northern Line train back to Aurora to
Speaker 3: the west, or if she planned to go to Joliette,
Speaker 3: she had two different options, the Illinois Central Golf Line
Speaker 3: or the Rock Island Line. The Illinois Central Golf Line
Speaker 3: seems more likely because it left from Union Station. The
Speaker 3: line from Elgin would have terminated there, and she wouldn't
Speaker 3: have had to walk anywhere else with her bags.
Speaker 5: So theoretically that would make the most sense.
Speaker 3: However, she could have taken the Rock Island Line, but
Speaker 3: she would have had to walk to La Salle Street
Speaker 3: in Chicago to get on that train.
Speaker 5: Either way. To get to either Aurora or Joliette.
Speaker 3: By train, Waityia would have had to travel from Elgin
Speaker 3: into Chicago and then back out.
Speaker 4: Speaking of trains, we should also note that Waititiia could
Speaker 4: potentially take an Amtrak from Chicago to a number of
Speaker 4: other cities in Illinois or across the country too. We
Speaker 4: don't have any reason to think she was planning to
Speaker 4: do that, but it is important to note that if
Speaker 4: she did go to Chicago Wayteryia could literally go anywhere
Speaker 4: in the country if she had enough money to buy
Speaker 4: a ticket on either.
Speaker 6: A bus or a train.
Speaker 4: Overall, Andrew and I have decided that Chicago is another
Speaker 4: viable option for Waitiia's travels, and we will certainly discuss
Speaker 4: Chicago more in future episodes as we consider the options
Speaker 4: that Waititiia had backed in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 3: The revelation that there was not a direct Greyhound or
Speaker 3: Trailways bus or a direct train from Elgin to Joliet
Speaker 3: suggests that Wayteria would have had to commute to another
Speaker 3: city to get there if that was in fact our
Speaker 3: final destination, So that adds another layer to this case.
Speaker 3: Watyia certainly could have gone to the city of Chicago
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty two and had something happen there, which is
Speaker 3: another theory that we have to consider.
Speaker 4: We would like to thank Bob Webber from the Pullman
Speaker 4: Library and Bob al Kaire from the Fox River Trolley
Speaker 4: Museum for helping us get a bunch of maps from
Speaker 4: the RTA and Metra. With these old cases, you have
Speaker 4: to really think outside of the box to try to
Speaker 4: track down old records, So Andrew and I reached out
Speaker 4: to the Illinois Railway Museum, the Fox River Trolley Museum,
Speaker 4: and the Pullman Library to find old train and bus
Speaker 4: schedules and maps. We certainly appreciate the emails and letters
Speaker 4: we got back from both of them. The records are
Speaker 4: really helpful for us to get a better idea of
Speaker 4: the options that Waiteria had in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 3: Bob Webber from the Pullman Museum also gave us another
Speaker 3: piece of really useful information. In addition to Greyhound and trailways,
Speaker 3: the RTA, which operated the train lines back then, also
Speaker 3: operated suburban buses, so Beth, Chris and I decided that
Speaker 3: we also needed to look at that option as well well.
Speaker 5: In fact, that option might actually make the most sense.
Speaker 4: Similar to trains which are now operated by Metra. The
Speaker 4: RTA bus doesn't exist anymore either. Pace took over bus
Speaker 4: services in the area in nineteen eighty four and still
Speaker 4: operates in Chicagoland, with a large downtown station here in
Speaker 4: Elgin near the Metro station. So we reached out to
Speaker 4: Pace and the company provided us with additional maps and
Speaker 4: schedules from the nineteen eighties. It appears that the bus
Speaker 4: lines then were similar to the ones now. We would
Speaker 4: like to thank Maggie Daily for helping us out with
Speaker 4: the old Pace records. We also know that buses and
Speaker 4: trains are a pretty large hobby for people, so if
Speaker 4: anyone is listening that has additional information that might be
Speaker 4: useful for the bus and drain lines, we would really
Speaker 4: appreciate the assistance. Tracking down the exact locations of bus
Speaker 4: stops and lines from forty plus years ago might give
Speaker 4: us a new trail to follow.
Speaker 3: Based on the records that we've gathered so far, Whyteria
Speaker 3: certainly could have taken in an RTA bus to Chicago,
Speaker 3: just like the greyhound.
Speaker 5: Or train options.
Speaker 3: The big difference with the RTA bus option is there
Speaker 3: was a direct route from Elgin to Aurora on Bus
Speaker 3: eight oh one. That route picked up in Elgin every
Speaker 3: fifteen to twenty minutes and continued all the way to Aurora,
Speaker 3: but it didn't go to Joliet.
Speaker 4: Once we learned that the RTA bus to Aurora could
Speaker 4: be an option, who wanted to find out if there
Speaker 4: was an RTA bus that directly connected Aurora to Juliet.
Speaker 4: Based upon the maps we have so far, we haven't
Speaker 4: found any direct RTA train or bus route from Aurora
Speaker 4: to Joliet, so it seems like the best way to
Speaker 4: get to Juliet would still be to take a bus
Speaker 4: or train to Chicago and then out to juliet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if there may have been a way to pop
Speaker 3: on multiple buses between multiple cities and maneuver her way
Speaker 3: from Elgin to Joliet via Aurora, but records from RTA
Speaker 3: maps from the late seventies and early eighties do not
Speaker 3: include direct lines that connect Aurora with another city that
Speaker 3: also connects to joliet Traveling to Chicago remains the easier
Speaker 3: and quickest hub for that, and she reportedly had.
Speaker 5: Belongings with her.
Speaker 3: Changing multiple buses across multiple cities would not be as
Speaker 3: likely as just going to Chicago and coming back out
Speaker 3: on a bus line. It'd be really difficult to use
Speaker 3: Aurora as a launch pad to joliet unless she went
Speaker 3: to Chicago first. We'll talk about Aurora in our next episode,
Speaker 3: but a big part of this episode was trying to
Speaker 3: figure out if Waytyia could get to Joliette on an
Speaker 3: RTA bus or some other way directly from Elgin.
Speaker 4: Yes, so sticking with Juliette for now, Whytia could have
Speaker 4: taken in train to Chicago and announce Joliette, or she
Speaker 4: could have taken either a Greyhound on ARTA bus to
Speaker 4: Chicago and then ount to Juliette. Or even possibly she
Speaker 4: could have gone to Aurora on the RTA bus but
Speaker 4: then worked her way back across multiple routes and cities
Speaker 4: to end up in Joliette. But that last option certainly
Speaker 4: seems the least likely. If Waitiia was traveling to Juliette,
Speaker 4: as a witness told police, she was supposed to be
Speaker 4: going to the Joliette Motor Lodge. But as we started
Speaker 4: this investigation, we then ran into another problem. There is
Speaker 4: and never has been a hotel called the Joliette Motor Lodge.
Speaker 3: When it comes to these old cases, Chris and I
Speaker 3: have found that some of our best information comes from
Speaker 3: local historical societies and museums. So for this case, we
Speaker 3: contacted the Joliet Area Historical Museum and we corresponded with
Speaker 3: their curator there named Stephen Wright. We want to thank
Speaker 3: him for helping us track down a bunch of old
Speaker 3: records that really did help us on this case.
Speaker 4: The records were received from Stephen were able to indicate
Speaker 4: that there was no joliet Motor Lodge, but there were
Speaker 4: two potential hotels that had a similar name. One of
Speaker 4: which was the Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge in Joliette, which
Speaker 4: was located at I fifty five in Route fifty two,
Speaker 4: and the other was the Joliett Motor Hotel, which was
Speaker 4: located at three seventy three Western Avenue. The Howard Johnson
Speaker 4: Motor Lodge changed hands multiple times over the years and
Speaker 4: was recently demolished, so it is unfortunately no longer in
Speaker 4: existence today. But Stephen was able to get us some
Speaker 4: old phone directories from hotels in the nineteen eighties and
Speaker 4: joliet and those were extremely helpful. The directories provided exact
Speaker 4: addresses and in some cases phone numbers, which reminded us
Speaker 4: that we actually had a phone number listed in the
Speaker 4: original Elgin police report along with the name Joliett Motor Lodge.
Speaker 3: Chris and I quickly dug out the old report and
Speaker 3: we compared the phone number to the nineteen eighties phone
Speaker 3: number for the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge, and they were different.
Speaker 3: So we began to think that the joliet Motor Hotel
Speaker 3: might be the better option for this investigation. Of Course,
Speaker 3: as luck would have it, the old directories didn't even
Speaker 3: list the Joliet Motor Hotel or a phone number for it.
Speaker 3: So we were back to square one again, that is,
Speaker 3: until Steven sent us a newspaper article that he found
Speaker 3: about the Joliet Motor Hotel that was published in nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty four.
Speaker 4: Stephen came across a news clipping from the October twentieth,
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty four edition of the Joliet Herald News. The
Speaker 4: article mentioned that the Joliet Motor Hotel, discussed that the
Speaker 4: property had numerous code violations, and even noted that nearly
Speaker 4: one hundred people occupied the nine story hotel as of
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty four. The hotel was also delinquent on water
Speaker 4: and sewage bills, with the city threatening to cut.
Speaker 6: Off the water later that week.
Speaker 4: The final line of the article held that the information
Speaker 4: that we were looking for. It mentioned that the owners
Speaker 4: of the Joliet Motor Hotel had previously owned a hotel
Speaker 4: in Elgin, and it named those owners Chester and June Zema.
Speaker 3: As soon as Chris and I read the article, we
Speaker 3: immediately knew we were on the right track with the
Speaker 3: Joliet Motor Hotel because we recognized that last name Zema.
Speaker 3: In fact, as listeners know from our last episode. The
Speaker 3: hotel that the Zema's owned an Elgin was the Douglas Hotel.
Speaker 3: So Chris and I both firmly believe that if Waityia
Speaker 3: was going to the Joliet Motor Lodge, as she allegedly
Speaker 3: told another witness, she actually met the Joliet Motor Hotel.
Speaker 4: That location certainly makes sense. Waitiia was living in a
Speaker 4: hotel that the Zemas were operating in Elgin, and so
Speaker 4: it seems likely that she would know that they had
Speaker 4: another hotel. It also makes sense that the owners would
Speaker 4: potentially tell residents that they could accept them at that
Speaker 4: other property once the Douglas Hotel closed. That, along with
Speaker 4: the fact that an independent witness told police that Wayitiia
Speaker 4: mentioned moving to Joliet, makes at least sense that that's
Speaker 4: hospital she was considering that option.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it certainly seems most likely that the hotel and Joliet,
Speaker 3: if she was planning to go there, would have been
Speaker 3: the Joliet Motor Hotel located at three seventy three Western Avenue.
Speaker 3: Because the physical building still exists, we decided that we
Speaker 3: should check it out in person.
Speaker 5: To see it.
Speaker 3: Detective Striker came along with us as we visited the
Speaker 3: former hotel called the Joliet Motor Hotel.
Speaker 7: So this is the hotel.
Speaker 6: Yep, this is literally triple the size of the Douglas Hotel.
Speaker 3: That's crazy.
Speaker 5: It's still pretty in shape. So it's head and side
Speaker 5: and take a look.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sounds good, all right, So we went into the
Speaker 3: hotel and it turns out it's an apartment.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: Back then in the eighties, the upper third through ninth
Speaker 3: floor were kind of apartments and the first two floors
Speaker 3: were hotels, right correct, Yeah.
Speaker 8: The lady that worked at the desk said that the
Speaker 8: current owners bought it in nineteen ninety five from the
Speaker 8: Zema family who had owned the Douglas Hotel in alg.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we were able to meet with an actual resident
Speaker 3: who lived here since about nineteen seventy seven, and so
Speaker 3: he did not remember why Chirier looked at some photos
Speaker 3: of her, but he did know the family owned a
Speaker 3: different hotel in Elgin and he actually hold something kind
Speaker 3: of interesting, right, Chris.
Speaker 9: Yeah, He told us that he, along with several other residents,
Speaker 9: eventually got on a believe a Greyhound bus and went
Speaker 9: all the way down to Texas to relocate to another location.
Speaker 6: Down there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because the Zema family owned a hotel down there. Apparently,
Speaker 3: unfortunately he did not recall Whiteitiria being one.
Speaker 5: Of the people that went with him.
Speaker 3: But it sounds like when this hotel was either closing
Speaker 3: or there are some issues here, the owners put several
Speaker 3: of the tenants on a bus and took them to
Speaker 3: another hotel. So now we have to kind of consider
Speaker 3: that as an option for Elgin. You know, maybe they
Speaker 3: put people on a bus there and just brought them
Speaker 3: over here to the Douglas.
Speaker 7: I mean, if they had a place in Texas this
Speaker 7: whole time, that's obviously an option too. Maybe some people
Speaker 7: went down there from Elgin. Maybe they didn't come here
Speaker 7: first too.
Speaker 9: Yeah, for sure, still put up another potential entire location
Speaker 9: to look at.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so now we have to consider Texas as an option.
Speaker 7: And I'm hoping maybe I know these the people we
Speaker 7: talked to you who work here now said that they
Speaker 7: are part of the historical society and Juliet and that
Speaker 7: they are interested in the history. So maybe if they
Speaker 7: they were incredibly helpful. Yeah, and maybe if they come
Speaker 7: across something or if they you know, yeah, some records,
Speaker 7: some records they can they'll call us and let us know,
Speaker 7: or they come across somebody else who might have some
Speaker 7: more knowledge or lived here back then. I know the
Speaker 7: resident who lived here. He has spent here since he
Speaker 7: was eighteen, and.
Speaker 10: He's what he said he's going to be.
Speaker 7: Yeah, he's sixties sixty.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he said that.
Speaker 1: The hope when it was a hotel.
Speaker 3: On the bottom floor is like the long term extended state.
Speaker 3: It was single person room, so you didn't have roommates.
Speaker 3: My apartments upstairs were in a little bit more so
Speaker 3: we would maybe assume that if Lacheria did come here
Speaker 3: that she would have her own room. It's a cheaper
Speaker 3: option for her. The only records they could find were
Speaker 3: some paybooks from the nineteen eighties. It was nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 3: It looks like it was about eighty five bucks to
Speaker 3: stay here for the month. For the month, but this
Speaker 3: resident said that he would get his checks from the
Speaker 3: state for his Social Security and that's how he would
Speaker 3: pay for his stay. So it sounds like that's pretty
Speaker 3: similar over was one on Belgian as well. But yeah, overall,
Speaker 3: some good new information for us.
Speaker 7: You're a Joliet.
Speaker 4: Interesting similarly to the Douglas Hotel we don't have many
Speaker 4: records of tenants for the Joliet Motor Hotel. Wateria also
Speaker 4: is not listed in federal census records for the Joliet
Speaker 4: Motor Lodge like she was for the Douglas Hotel, so
Speaker 4: we can't confirm it she ever even made it there.
Speaker 4: The original witness who told police that Wayteria planned to
Speaker 4: go to Joliette also set in nineteen eighty three that
Speaker 4: she had called the hotel and that they told her
Speaker 4: that Waititia had never been a tenant there. So what's
Speaker 4: likely that even if records didn't exist, and given her
Speaker 4: absence in the census records, Wayteria would not be listed.
Speaker 4: It seems like even though we've identified the location that
Speaker 4: she may have been going to, we've hit another dead end.
Speaker 3: Another thing we did for this episode was reviewed numerous
Speaker 3: missing person cases from Will County, which is where Joliet
Speaker 3: is located. Just like Kinge County and other areas of Illinois,
Speaker 3: there are many more people missing than people probably realize.
Speaker 4: Our goal in reviewing missing persons cases for the area
Speaker 4: was to look for any missing person's cases involving women
Speaker 4: in the area from the early night eighties, when myteria
Speaker 4: could have been in will County. So as we have
Speaker 4: come through these old cases, we came across a few
Speaker 4: that we want to briefly touch on. The first case
Speaker 4: is from Frankfurt, Illinois, which is roughly fifteen miles east
Speaker 4: of Joliet, and it involves a sixteen year old girl
Speaker 4: named April rose Zaane. The records for her case are
Speaker 4: a little spotty, but she disappeared on either Easter Sunday
Speaker 4: of nineteen seventy six or seventy seven. Easter Sunday was
Speaker 4: April eighteenth and nineteen seventy six and April tenth in
Speaker 4: nineteen seventy seven. Because her parents had both died and
Speaker 4: she had been out past curfew in the past, the
Speaker 4: exact date fluctuates depending on what research you use, but
Speaker 4: needless to say, she vanished on Easter of nineteen seventy
Speaker 4: six or nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 3: According to April's sister, who was approximately six years old
Speaker 3: when she disappeared, the family took a lily to April's
Speaker 3: grandmother's house with the rest of the family for Easter.
Speaker 3: Bill reportedly told her little sister, I'll see you later, kid,
Speaker 3: I'll be back but April never returned.
Speaker 4: April was between five feet four inches and five feet
Speaker 4: eight inches tall, and she weighed approximately one hundred and
Speaker 4: fifteen pounds. She also had red hair, blue eyes, and
Speaker 4: lots of freckles. April was last seen wearing a brown
Speaker 4: flannel jacket, and a picture of her is included with
Speaker 4: this episode. April's family has since declared her legally dead
Speaker 4: and placed a small memorial on her parents' grave at
Speaker 4: Rose Hills Cemetery in Frankfurt, Illinois, with the simple inscription
Speaker 4: in using her date of death as Easter Sunday, nineteen
Speaker 4: seventy seven.
Speaker 10: In memory of April rose Zane, February twenty fifth, nineteen
Speaker 10: sixty to April tenth, nineteen seventy seven. Stolen from my life,
Speaker 10: still remains in my heart.
Speaker 3: While we don't believe that April's case is related to
Speaker 3: Whitteria's disappearance in nineteen eighty two, is another example of
Speaker 3: just another young girl like Barbara Gluckert, who simply vanished
Speaker 3: in thin air in the nineteen seventies. If you, or
Speaker 3: anyone you know as information about April Rosane's disappearance, you
Speaker 3: can contact the Franklin Park Police Department at eight one
Speaker 3: five four nine six four nine three five, or you
Speaker 3: can reach out to us and we can put you
Speaker 3: in contact with them.
Speaker 4: Another pretty well known area case for Will County is
Speaker 4: the disappearance of six year old Sarah Elizabeth Avon. Sarah
Speaker 4: disappeared from her home on Oscar Avenue in Joliet at
Speaker 4: approximately nine pm on July twenty first, nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 4: She was last seen wearing a Juliette District Soccer T shirt,
Speaker 4: blue jogging pants with red and white stripes, and blue
Speaker 4: tennis shoes with a white stripe. She had blondish brown hair,
Speaker 4: was approximately four feet tall, and weighed about fifty pounds.
Speaker 4: Police still suspect that her case is a homicide.
Speaker 3: Over the years, several suspects were mentioned in different media articles,
Speaker 3: but in the July twenty second, twenty twenty edition of
Speaker 3: the Joliet Patch, the Will County Sheriff's Office revealed that
Speaker 3: the prime person of interest in this disappearance was a
Speaker 3: man named William Billy Redden. Police noted that Reddin had
Speaker 3: prior convictions for aggravated battery involving a nineteen month old child,
Speaker 3: and he lived just two blocks from Sarah in the
Speaker 3: two hundred block of Reikman Street. Oftentimes, offenders who abduct
Speaker 3: children have some connection to the child, and Billy certainly
Speaker 3: had one with Sarah. He was her dad's cousin, so
Speaker 3: he was not a stranger to her, and she was
Speaker 3: someone that she knew.
Speaker 4: Reddin died in twenty ten, but The Patch interviewed Sarah's
Speaker 4: former babysitter in twenty twenty and she had this to
Speaker 4: say about him.
Speaker 11: He was there all the time. Billy Redden was creepy,
Speaker 11: really really scary. Everybody was thinking it was Billy. I
Speaker 11: think everybody kind of just stayed away from Billy.
Speaker 3: Other area residents also talked about being afraid of Reddin,
Speaker 3: and the police focused on him almost immediately back in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty one, but it wasn't until twenty twenty when
Speaker 3: the community learned a lot more about the investigation. That year,
Speaker 3: Will County Deputy Chief Dan Jungles the media that they
Speaker 3: had excavated Redden's cross space in twenty nineteen and that
Speaker 3: the Sheriff's department also starts to a ural property that
Speaker 3: he owned on Noel Road as well. Unfortunately, they didn't
Speaker 3: find Sarah.
Speaker 4: Newspaper articles include that the Avon family had remained in
Speaker 4: contact with the Will County Sheriff's Department and that they
Speaker 4: appreciate the continued efforts of the agency. Sarah's sister was
Speaker 4: quoted in the same Patch article as saying, we deeply
Speaker 4: appreciate the efforts of all those at the Sheriff's Department,
Speaker 4: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the family
Speaker 4: who lived on the property on Noel Road, for all
Speaker 4: of their hard work, dedication, and commitment to finding a
Speaker 4: resolution to Sarah's case. Law enforcement and Will County continue
Speaker 4: to seek the public's help for information on Billy Redden
Speaker 4: and the case. So if you or anyone else know
Speaker 4: of any information about Sarah's disappearance or information about Billy
Speaker 4: Redden that could be helpful, please contact the Will County
Speaker 4: Sheriff's Office at eight point five seven two seven eight
Speaker 4: five seven four. You can also provide an anonymous tip
Speaker 4: online to them or reach.
Speaker 6: Out to us and we could put you in contact.
Speaker 4: Similar to April, we have included a photograph of Sarah
Speaker 4: along with this episode. As we approached the nineteen eighties,
Speaker 4: there are several males who disappeared in Will County including
Speaker 4: a thirty two year old white man named David Goffin
Speaker 4: on May thirty first, nineteen eighty three, and a thirty
Speaker 4: three year old white man named Ronnie Wootton on the
Speaker 4: fourth of July and nineteen eighty five. Neither case appears
Speaker 4: to have in any apparent connections to Whititiia, but both
Speaker 4: are still missing, and the Will County Sheriff's Office is
Speaker 4: the investigating agency for both cases.
Speaker 3: Will County has a number of other cold case missing
Speaker 3: persons throughout the eighties, nineties, and two thousands, just like
Speaker 3: Kane County has. Certainly people in Chicagoland know of two
Speaker 3: famous cases out of that county. On April thirtieth, two
Speaker 3: thousand and seven, thirty seven year old Lisa Stebbeck disappeared from.
Speaker 5: Plainfield, Illinois.
Speaker 3: Her husband, Craig Stebbeck, reportedly said he saw her leaving
Speaker 3: the house to go to an exercise class before she disappeared.
Speaker 3: She has never been found and has ever been charged
Speaker 3: in her disappearance. Then, on October twenty eighth, two thousand
Speaker 3: and eight, twenty three year old Stacy Peterson disappeared from
Speaker 3: nearby Bowling Brook, also in Will County. Stacy's case made
Speaker 3: national headlines because she was the fourth wife of Bolingbrook
Speaker 3: Police Sergeant Drew Peterson, whose third wife, Kathleen Savio, had
Speaker 3: been found dead in a bathtub. Police reopened Kathleen's case,
Speaker 3: Andrew was later convicted for her murder, but Stacy has
Speaker 3: still never been found.
Speaker 4: The Will County Sheriff's Department also recently had a big
Speaker 4: win in the cold case, so we wanted to mention
Speaker 4: it here and give them a shoutout. On January fifth,
Speaker 4: of twenty twenty sixth, the Will County Sheriff's Office charged
Speaker 4: eighty two year old Gilbert Bernall, Senior with the murder
Speaker 4: of his wife, Joan Bernall. Joan disappeared in December of
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty eight and her body had never been found,
Speaker 4: But through the hard work of the Will County Sheriff's
Speaker 4: Department and tips from the public, they charged a case
Speaker 4: that is nearly thirty seven years old. It is just
Speaker 4: one more example like our own case with Karen Sheepers
Speaker 4: in March of twenty twenty four and North Aurora's case
Speaker 4: with Kathy Holly in the fall of twenty twenty five,
Speaker 4: in which area agencies are starting to focus and close
Speaker 4: cold cases. These examples give us hope that we can
Speaker 4: continue this trend as we continued focusing on our own cases.
Speaker 3: For sure, and we certainly want to continue to highlight
Speaker 3: and mention other area cold cases as well when we
Speaker 3: come across them in our investigations, because even though these
Speaker 3: cases are in Will County, they don't appear to be
Speaker 3: related to Whyteria's case.
Speaker 5: Every single case matters.
Speaker 3: Girls like April and Sarah have been missing for over
Speaker 3: forty years, and each case, whether they became a national
Speaker 3: headline news or not, were people who mattered. Each missing
Speaker 3: person or victim had families who still mourn their loss
Speaker 3: and struggle with not knowing where their loved one is,
Speaker 3: and each family and each victim deserve to be remembered
Speaker 3: and kept in the spotlight and hopes that someone will
Speaker 3: help solve their case. So please, if you have any
Speaker 3: information about any of the cases we've discussed in this episode,
Speaker 3: please contact us.
Speaker 8: Well.
Speaker 4: As of now, we have visited Juliet and we are
Speaker 4: very confident that we have identified the actual hotel that
Speaker 4: Wayteria potentially plan to go to, but we still don't
Speaker 4: know if she actually traveled there. We're still working to
Speaker 4: try to find old records for tenants and Joliette, but
Speaker 4: those records simply may no longer exist. We will certainly
Speaker 4: update our listeners as we find new information, but Joliette
Speaker 4: is just one of multiple cities that we plan to
Speaker 4: visit over the course of this season. If you believe
Speaker 4: that you have information about Whyteria that relates to joliet
Speaker 4: or anywhere else, please reach out to us. You can
Speaker 4: remain anonymous if you'd like. And I know we've said
Speaker 4: this phrase several times, but what you know is more
Speaker 4: important to us than who you are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Chris, and if you knew Whyteria in any way,
Speaker 3: please contact us. We would love to talk to more
Speaker 3: people who actually knew her, who lived in the Douglas Hotel,
Speaker 3: or maybe who stayed at the Joliette Motor Hotel in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty two or nineteen eighty three. Proving whether she
Speaker 3: actually went to joliet would be a huge step in
Speaker 3: this investigation, so please don't hesitate to contact us if
Speaker 3: you think you know something. No detail is too small.
Speaker 4: We've taken our listeners to sites and Joliette and Elgin
Speaker 4: that are related to this case, but we have more
Speaker 4: sites than cities to visit. We know that Watiia was
Speaker 4: living in Aurora, Illinois, prior to her move into Elgin,
Speaker 4: and we know that she had family and children still
Speaker 4: living there at the time of her disappearance.
Speaker 6: Could Watia have decided to go.
Speaker 4: Back home to Aurora or could she have meant to
Speaker 4: go there first before moving on to Joliet or somewhere else.
Speaker 6: It's all certainly possible.
Speaker 4: Please join us next time as we leave Elgin again,
Speaker 4: travel to Viteria's hometown of Aurora, Illinois, as we continue
Speaker 4: our investigation here on Somebody Knows something.
Speaker 2: If you or anyone you know has information about this
Speaker 2: case or any other cold case in Elgin, please contact
Speaker 2: the Elgin Police Department Cold Case email at cold Case
Speaker 2: tips at elginilt gov, or the cold case tip line
Speaker 2: at eight four seven two eight nine cold. You can
Speaker 2: also review cold case information on the Elgin Police Department's
Speaker 2: cold case page at www dot elgincoldcases dot com, where
Speaker 2: every cold case, homicide, and missing person's case is listed
Speaker 2: with photographs and information about each case.