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 Howden.
Speaker 4: And I'm Detective Chris Hall. Last episode, we broke down
Speaker 4: the original case report for why Tia Jones's disappearance in
Speaker 4: the fall of nice. We also detailed that she was
Speaker 4: seeking treatment at the Elgin Mental Health Center, living at
Speaker 4: the Douglas Hotel in downtown Elgin, and we also explained
Speaker 4: that there was a huge time delay for this case.
Speaker 4: With a huge gap in time and unlimited information from
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty two to nineteen eighty three, we will face
Speaker 4: unique challenges in this case, and we do anticipate that
Speaker 4: this case will take us to other cities outside of
Speaker 4: Elgin as we continue our search for Waitiria Jones.
Speaker 3: In this episode, we will start our investigation here in
Speaker 3: Elgin with several sites that are related to Waitia and
Speaker 3: her disappearance. The first location is the site of the
Speaker 3: Douglas Hotel, the same location where in nineteen seventy seven,
Speaker 3: witnesses sat in the courtyard as Casey Cow's was murdered
Speaker 3: in the alleyway just outside. Could this location be the
Speaker 3: scene of another crime five years later.
Speaker 5: Well, we're going to try to find out.
Speaker 4: The Douglas Hotel was originally a premier private hotel called
Speaker 4: the Fox Hotel. Built in nineteen twenty five. It contained
Speaker 4: one hundred and twenty five modern fireproof rooms and an
Speaker 4: elite dining room. It was one of two downtown hotels
Speaker 4: here in Elgin, and in his nineteen eighty four book
Speaker 4: Elgin and American History, E. C. Alft wrote that the
Speaker 4: Fox Hotel was the city's premier accommodation. In fact, the
Speaker 4: Fox Hotel predates one of Elgin's most famous buildings, the
Speaker 4: Elgin Tower Building, which was not built until nineteen twenty
Speaker 4: nine and sits just two blocks to the southwest of
Speaker 4: the Douglas Hotel.
Speaker 3: The Elgin Tower Building is one hundred and eighty six
Speaker 3: feet tall and has fifteen stories. In nineteen twenty nine,
Speaker 3: the Art Deco style building became the city's first so
Speaker 3: called skyscraper and housed the Home National Bank and Home
Speaker 3: National Savings and Trust. But the Fox hotel had been
Speaker 3: around for four years already it was welcoming guest to
Speaker 3: the industrial hub that was nineteen twenties Elgin. In the
Speaker 3: early nineteen hundreds, Elgin was growing. The Elgin National Watch Factory,
Speaker 3: located near downtown, was the largest producer of fine watches
Speaker 3: in the United States, and the Elgin Sweeper Corporation was
Speaker 3: founded when John Murphy and Elgin invented the first motorized
Speaker 3: street sweeper in nineteen fourteen. Other factories like the Woodroff
Speaker 3: and Edwards Foundry, which was the site of Guadalupe Alanus's
Speaker 3: murder in nineteen seventy one from Season two, also employed
Speaker 3: hundreds of workers, and area railways connected Elgin to major
Speaker 3: hubs like Galina and Chicago. In short, business was booming
Speaker 3: in Elgin, so hotels began to pop up to handle
Speaker 3: that influx of visitors into the city.
Speaker 4: The Fox Hotel enjoyed nearly fifty years of prosperity, but
Speaker 4: like many other businesses in downtown Elgin, especially after the
Speaker 4: Elgin National Watch Company closed in nineteen sixty five and
Speaker 4: the economy waned, the hotel sadly began to fall in
Speaker 4: hard times. By nineteen seventy five, the once elite hotel
Speaker 4: became housing units for the Elgin Mental Health Center, with
Speaker 4: the once fancy hotel rooms housing over one hundred outpatients
Speaker 4: for the center. Sometime in nineteen eighty two, why Tia
Speaker 4: Jones became one of those tenants when she moved into
Speaker 4: what was once called the Fox Hotel but was now
Speaker 4: known as the Douglas Hotel on the corner of Douglas
Speaker 4: and Division Streets in downtown Elgin. The US Public Records
Speaker 4: Index from nineteen fifty to nineteen ninety three lists Waititiia
Speaker 4: as a residence at the Douglas Hotel address on May first,
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty two, so we do know that at least
Speaker 4: by May of nineteen eighty two, she was living there.
Speaker 3: Then on October first, nineteen eighty two, the hotel closed
Speaker 3: its stores for good. I would add that the cover
Speaker 3: art for this episode is actually from January fifth, of
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty three, and it depicts people boarding up the property.
Speaker 3: An article in the Daily Courier News noted that the
Speaker 3: hotel closed in September and at that time housed about
Speaker 3: forty patients from the Elgi Mental Health Center. It sat
Speaker 3: vacant for a number of years until the City of
Speaker 3: Elgin purchased the property and converted it into forty five
Speaker 3: affordable housing apartments for senior citizens in nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 3: The exterior of the four story building looks almost identical
Speaker 3: to pictures we have seen from the Fox Hotel from
Speaker 3: the early nineteen twenties, but the interior has certainly changed
Speaker 3: and updated drastically, especially since nineteen eighty two when it closed.
Speaker 3: As listeners also know, the courtyard outside remains almost identical
Speaker 3: to what it looked like in crime scene sketches from
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy seven, when Casey Cow's was murdered there.
Speaker 4: Owners of the whole hotel reportedly searched the hotel just
Speaker 4: after it closed to ensure that all the tenants were out,
Speaker 4: and police also searched the property for this case, but
Speaker 4: that search came months after Waitia vanished. In March of
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty three. One of Waitiia's daughters was concerned that
Speaker 4: Waititiia could still be in the abandoned hotel, and the
Speaker 4: Elgin Police documented her call in a report. Here's the
Speaker 4: actual police report for that search. The report is edited
Speaker 4: and redacted for clarity and to protect the identity of witnesses.
Speaker 6: On March twenty eighth, nineteen eighty three, Youth Officer Berg
Speaker 6: spoke with Wyitia Jones' daughter by phone. She has no
Speaker 6: further information, but expressed the family's concern that Waititiia was
Speaker 6: laying dead and undiscovered in the abandoned Douglas Hotel building.
Speaker 6: Officer Berg advised her that he had spoken with who
Speaker 6: had inspected the building prior to it being sealed, and
Speaker 6: that he had indicated that was impossible. However, on March
Speaker 6: twenty eighth, nineteen eighty three, Youth Officer Berg and Detective
Speaker 6: Gonzales gained access to the hotel through the Bazos cleaner's
Speaker 6: entrance and thoroughly checked the building, finding nothing. Case remains active.
Speaker 4: We decided that even though the property is different than
Speaker 4: what it was in nineteen eighty two, visiting the physical
Speaker 4: building would be useful. We first looked to see if
Speaker 4: we could visit the hotel with the original owners, just
Speaker 4: like Andrew Matt did with PM Bentley's in Season one,
Speaker 4: but the original owners, Chester and June Zeema, are both deceased.
Speaker 4: June died in two thousand and one and Chester died
Speaker 4: in two thousand and eight. However, one of their sons,
Speaker 4: who was quoted in the original police report as saying
Speaker 4: that he saw Waitia around that time when the hotel closed,
Speaker 4: is still alive, so we reached out to him.
Speaker 3: That witness has since retired and moved out of state.
Speaker 3: While he did remember the Douglas Hotel and told us
Speaker 3: that he did sometimes work there in nineteen eighty two
Speaker 3: or nineteen eighty three, he didn't really recall anything about
Speaker 3: Waiteria's case. He did remember that the hotel was closed
Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty two and that a number of tenants
Speaker 3: were patients from the older mental health center, but beyond that,
Speaker 3: he didn't really have a lot of new information to
Speaker 3: provide us.
Speaker 4: We also asked about any old records for tenants or
Speaker 4: any other similar records, but as you can imagine, records
Speaker 4: that old do not appear to have been retained. And unfortunately,
Speaker 4: because he didn't recall anything about this case, he also
Speaker 4: could not recall what bus stop he told police he
Speaker 4: saw Withateria at nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 3: It does at least make some sense that he may
Speaker 3: not recall this incident. It was a random question from
Speaker 3: law enforcement over forty years ago for a family member
Speaker 3: of the owners. The fact that he didn't recall why
Speaker 3: Kyria's name or anything about this case is not that
Speaker 3: shocking to us. It would be nice to know what
Speaker 3: bus stop he reportedly saw her at, and anything else
Speaker 3: that he might remember, But we are talking about something
Speaker 3: that happened over forty years ago, and unfortunately we don't
Speaker 3: have the former owner to walk us around the building
Speaker 3: to see what's changed. Even so, we plan to continue
Speaker 3: working to see if we can track down records for
Speaker 3: the hotel from the nineteen eighties if they still exist,
Speaker 3: and we certainly are not writing out the theory that
Speaker 3: something could have happened to Waitia at the Douglas Hotel.
Speaker 4: As of the date of this recording, we have not
Speaker 4: been able to gather much new information about Waitteria. If
Speaker 4: she had a roommate she planned to go somewhere else
Speaker 4: when she moved out, or what she was wearing when
Speaker 4: she left, what bus stop she was at, or what
Speaker 4: type of belongings she had. So basically we're still at
Speaker 4: square one when it comes to her time at the
Speaker 4: Douglas Hotel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and as we said in our last episode, that's
Speaker 3: one reason why we chose this case for season three.
Speaker 3: We desperately need information from the public to try to
Speaker 3: piece together more information on Waiteria's time here in Elgin,
Speaker 3: So if you know anyone who lived at the Douglas Hotel,
Speaker 3: who worked at the Douglas Hotel, who worked at the
Speaker 3: Elger Mental Health Center, or knew Wayteria specifically in any capacity,
Speaker 3: please contact us. We'd love to know more about what
Speaker 3: she was like, any friends she had, relationships that she had,
Speaker 3: and any other information about her time here in Elgin.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 4: Even though we don't have the prior owner available, we
Speaker 4: decided that going to the actual hotel building would be
Speaker 4: useful for this case. So this past week, Andrew and
Speaker 4: I headed over to the Douglas Hotel with Detective Stairker
Speaker 4: to see the place where Waetiria lived while she was
Speaker 4: in Elgin Well.
Speaker 7: We came in the courtyard from where Casey Cowsbys was
Speaker 7: and the lobbies are pretty good area.
Speaker 8: Yeah, the front.
Speaker 9: Deska is down here too.
Speaker 7: I would assume this is maybe.
Speaker 9: Where it was in nineteen eighty two D three.
Speaker 10: Also, yeah, that makes the most sense. And wait, look
Speaker 10: at the stairway, it's all marble. They have to be
Speaker 10: original with the hotel from nineteen twenties, I would think,
Speaker 10: I know, the Fox Hotel was pretty swinky back then.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was a mere hotel. Why don't we head
Speaker 7: up and let's take a look at the rest of
Speaker 7: the mob All right, so it's four total Florence, but
Speaker 7: the basement was kind of just an electrical room. There's
Speaker 7: sort of these two different wings, and all these walls
Speaker 7: are drywall. I mean, back in the twenties this would
Speaker 7: have been plaster.
Speaker 5: You wouldn't have had drywall back in.
Speaker 7: Nineteen twenty when the building was built. We don't know
Speaker 7: what it would have been in the eighties, but it's
Speaker 7: certainly been updated since then.
Speaker 10: Yeah, we know that the update and there's new electrical
Speaker 10: there's new plumbing, and the city converted completely from multiple
Speaker 10: hotel rooms into multi room units.
Speaker 8: Well I'm not very.
Speaker 10: Intall, but it is a little claustrophobic in here.
Speaker 9: The ceilings are really low as you come up the
Speaker 9: steps to each floor. But we don't know which room
Speaker 9: she was in, right, we don't even know which floor.
Speaker 9: I don't think.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's right.
Speaker 4: Hopefully we can get more records as we keep looking
Speaker 4: into this, but it would be nice to know which
Speaker 4: floor she was actually on, and it's pretty important.
Speaker 5: If she had a roommate too. We don't even know
Speaker 5: if she was by herself.
Speaker 9: It definitely is a pretty interesting old building, though you
Speaker 9: can see small things like the stairway that really show
Speaker 9: the age and how old this building really is.
Speaker 7: Yeah, if you look out the front door, I mean
Speaker 7: we came in through the courtyard, but when you come
Speaker 7: out onto Division Street, you're basically writing downtown here. So
Speaker 7: there had to be a bus stop nearby. Yeah, I
Speaker 7: would say it's pretty critical.
Speaker 4: We definitely need to know where the bus stops were.
Speaker 9: Hopefully we can find some more riders on there, but
Speaker 9: at least we have to see the building a bit.
Speaker 9: I know it's different than it both back then, but
Speaker 9: I'll keep working on getting some more information about the building.
Speaker 9: But I'm glad we're able to at least come see it.
Speaker 3: Beth will continue to help gather records and information about
Speaker 3: the building itself, and as we laid out in episode one,
Speaker 3: one theory is that something could have happened to Whiteria
Speaker 3: at the hotel, or maybe she never even left the property,
Speaker 3: but ownership and police did do a thorough search, and
Speaker 3: we have at least one witness who claims that he
Speaker 3: saw Waiteria.
Speaker 5: At a bus stop.
Speaker 3: Well, it's possible that something happened at the hotel or
Speaker 3: here in Elgin. So far we don't have evidence of that,
Speaker 3: and we feel pretty confident that her remains were not
Speaker 3: concealed in the wall, or the basement or some other
Speaker 3: area of the actual building. Like you said, Chris, in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty two, the city didn't just throw up some
Speaker 3: new paint on the walls of this hotel. They completely
Speaker 3: gutted the interior and renovated. So it's much less likely
Speaker 3: that some concealed remains would be in the hotel, and
Speaker 3: if they were, it seems more likely that they would
Speaker 3: have been located during a extensive renovations.
Speaker 4: Very true, I had mentioned that it was rehabbed when
Speaker 4: we were out there, but listeners should know that the
Speaker 4: property was converted from the one hundred and twenty five
Speaker 4: total hotel rooms into forty five apartments with new electric,
Speaker 4: plumbing and other updates. So it does seem unlikely that
Speaker 4: some concealed remains would be missed. And the hotel was
Speaker 4: close to the main bus stops and train station, so
Speaker 4: let's consider those options. We continue our investigation here in
Speaker 4: downtown Elgin.
Speaker 3: We traveled over to the Douglas Hotel, but because a
Speaker 3: worker from the hotel told police in nineteen eighty three
Speaker 3: that he last saw Waiteria at a nearby bus stop,
Speaker 3: we started doing research on the bus stops and the
Speaker 3: bus station in town. Currently, the main bus terminal on
Speaker 3: Highland Avenue is the main bus hub for downtown Elgin,
Speaker 3: but during a recent visit to the Algin History Museum,
Speaker 3: we learned that bus terminal did not open until nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty five, so Waiteria clearly did not walk there.
Speaker 4: We even looked into the weather for the last week
Speaker 4: of September and the first week of Octave as well.
Speaker 4: He was cool all week, with a light drizzle or
Speaker 4: rain almost every day from Monday September twenty seventh through
Speaker 4: Monday October fourth. The day that the owner thought he
Speaker 4: saw Wayitiia was on or about October first, which was
Speaker 4: also a Friday, but we can't be certain that it
Speaker 4: was exactly October first. We only know that that day
Speaker 4: was the day that the tenants had to be out
Speaker 4: of the building.
Speaker 3: If Waityria was waiting for a bus near the Douglas Hotel.
Speaker 3: We also learned from the Elgin History Museum that there
Speaker 3: was a bus stop at nine North Grove Avenue, which
Speaker 3: is near the Elgin Tower Building and just about a
Speaker 3: block from the hotel, so it's possible that she could
Speaker 3: have walked just down the street to top a bus.
Speaker 4: We also reached out to Beth's dad, who was a
Speaker 4: retired lieutenant from the Algerin Police Department. He confirmed that
Speaker 4: the bus stop was on Grove. He said that the
Speaker 4: buses would drive south on Grove and pick up passengers,
Speaker 4: then turn east onto Chicago Street. That the buses would
Speaker 4: also come north on Grove and turned west onto Highland Avenue.
Speaker 4: Both streets are still one way streets, so that's how
Speaker 4: the downtown bus traffic was laid out back in the
Speaker 4: nineteen eighties. We should also note that the train lines
Speaker 4: were just across the river as well, just a few
Speaker 4: blocks from the hotel, so we will need to consider
Speaker 4: train travel as a viable option as you work through
Speaker 4: this case.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3: I think that if she was seen outside and was
Speaker 3: actually at a bus stop or heading to a bus
Speaker 3: stop and had luggage with her, she likely planned to
Speaker 3: travel somewhere, possibly home or a Joliette based on witness statements,
Speaker 3: or maybe she had some other place in.
Speaker 5: Mind if she did leave Elgin.
Speaker 3: But there's one more place in town that we want
Speaker 3: to describe in this episode before we move on to
Speaker 3: other cities, because Waiteria did receive care from a facility
Speaker 3: while here in town. That location is called the Elgin
Speaker 3: Mental Health Center.
Speaker 4: The Elgin Mental Health Center began as the Elgin State
Speaker 4: Hospital and the Northern Illinois Hospital, an asylum for the insane.
Speaker 4: The state of Illinois broke ground along what is now
Speaker 4: called Illinois Route thirty one, just south of what is
Speaker 4: now Illinois Route twenty in eighteen seventy and opened the
Speaker 4: first portions of that facility in eighteen seventy two. The
Speaker 4: building finally was completed in eighteen seventy four.
Speaker 3: The son of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church
Speaker 3: of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, was committed there
Speaker 3: in eighteen seventy seven, and he actually died there in
Speaker 3: nineteen oh four. Also in nineteen forty five, a man
Speaker 3: named Emmanuel Bronner, the founder of an organic soap company
Speaker 3: called Doctor Bronner's Magic Soaps was arrested and committed to
Speaker 3: the hospital while speaking at the University of Chicago. He
Speaker 3: reportedly received shock treatments, but later escaped and fled to California.
Speaker 3: There's all sorts of odd and interesting history around Elgin
Speaker 3: if you know where to look, and the Elgin Mental
Speaker 3: Health Center is no exception to that much.
Speaker 4: The original hospital is gone, but the Elgin Mental Health
Speaker 4: Center still operates today, mostly housing forensic patients who have
Speaker 4: been deemed unfit to stand trial and order committed to
Speaker 4: the state. This facility is where White came for treatment
Speaker 4: in nineteen eighty two, also receiving outpatient care and ultimately
Speaker 4: moving into the Douglas Hotel. So basically, the Elgin Mental
Speaker 4: Health Center is the only reason she ended up in
Speaker 4: Elgin and the only reason she is now a missing
Speaker 4: person on our caseload. If it didn't exist, why Tia
Speaker 4: probably would never have come to Elgin in the first place.
Speaker 4: So we decided to drive up to the facility just
Speaker 4: to see the place that brought Wateria to Elgin.
Speaker 8: Thin can go straight.
Speaker 9: It's in that little book, one of the books I
Speaker 9: was looking at it. It was called like the Northern
Speaker 9: Illinois Hospital for the Insane.
Speaker 8: I think is what it was titled.
Speaker 4: Such.
Speaker 8: Yeah, back in like eighteen seventy.
Speaker 3: I think that's the first time I've seen that good
Speaker 3: jam person.
Speaker 8: Now what I mean, that's the first time I've seen
Speaker 8: that building in person. I mean, ye had a big
Speaker 8: circle tower.
Speaker 3: I think I read that the people that built Urina
Speaker 3: Towers also designed that building. See wonder that big like
Speaker 3: theater that we saw that the history museum is still
Speaker 3: out here.
Speaker 8: If they twit that building down.
Speaker 9: I thought one of them said it caught on fire.
Speaker 9: I don't know if that was the one or not.
Speaker 8: That the smokestacks. I mean, this place was its own city.
Speaker 9: I read it was like a hundred I want to
Speaker 9: see one hundred and fifty acres.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 10: Maybe I'm writing the wrong thing, but.
Speaker 9: It's like it's own little towns.
Speaker 8: Some cottages in the back end.
Speaker 3: There used to be other buildings out here too that
Speaker 3: are obviously gone.
Speaker 8: Yeah, a lot of these have been closed.
Speaker 3: It seems like I know we're still waiting on records
Speaker 3: from the mental Health center, but it seems like maybe
Speaker 3: she got carre out here first and then was moved
Speaker 3: over to the Douglas hotel, or maybe she was just
Speaker 3: in the Douglas Hotel the entire time. It's hard to
Speaker 3: tell until we get I.
Speaker 9: Would guess she was getting dreaming here initially. Right, Well,
Speaker 9: like my day I was saying that, like once they
Speaker 9: started releasing people out into back into mainstream society, society,
Speaker 9: they didn't have a place to sa she's But I
Speaker 9: would guess she's probably still getting some sort of treatment,
Speaker 9: right or right she would have moved back to rural
Speaker 9: you would think.
Speaker 8: Yeah, she was getting the Fox Value Mental Health Center treatment.
Speaker 8: But hopefully we'll get those records soon.
Speaker 3: They'll be able to tell us how long she was
Speaker 3: here and if she was physically out here before she
Speaker 3: was moved.
Speaker 8: It's just taking a long time to get those kind
Speaker 8: of records.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's an interesting little building.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's definitely an interesting property.
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, see it's seen better years.
Speaker 8: You got the old Circle Circle building. Yeah, with that
Speaker 8: sounds like a it looks kind of like it's abandoned
Speaker 8: at this point. Yeah, it's a defense around. It looks like, Yeah,
Speaker 8: they talked about tearing it down. I'd seen an article
Speaker 8: about there, talking about tearing it out. But it's such
Speaker 8: a unique bear.
Speaker 9: Yeah, that's act.
Speaker 5: I know that.
Speaker 4: Last season we discussed the murder of Lori Jean Bulger
Speaker 4: in the summer of nineteen seventy six, and during that
Speaker 4: episode we also detailed that William Riinbold, a suspect in
Speaker 4: her murder, was arrested in nineteen seventy after he attacked
Speaker 4: a nurse Anne Ward, who was walking back to the
Speaker 4: Elga Mental Health Center property. Ryinbold had followed her from
Speaker 4: downtown Elgin to the edge of the property. As she
Speaker 4: walked near a small footbridge, he hid her from behind
Speaker 4: and dragged her into a culvert under Illinois Route thirty one,
Speaker 4: where he stabbed her forty five times with a two
Speaker 4: inch pocket knife. Anne Ward survived and William Riinbold was
Speaker 4: sentenced to ten years in prison for that attempted murder case. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: Ann's attack in nineteen seventy was not the last case
Speaker 4: that happened at the Elger Mental Health Center through the
Speaker 4: nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties. In fact, there have been
Speaker 4: four murders on the property, and one of those murders
Speaker 4: was in nineteen eighty two, just four months before Waititiria disappeared.
Speaker 3: As Chris said there were four murders at the Ulti
Speaker 3: Mental Health Center in the years before and after Waityia's disappearance.
Speaker 3: To be exact, those forur murders occurred between nineteen seventy
Speaker 3: six and nineteen eighty eight. Chris and I thought we
Speaker 3: would briefly touch on each one as we remember the
Speaker 3: victims in those cases and as we continue investigating Whityria's case.
Speaker 3: The first of the fore murders at the ult Mental
Speaker 3: Health Center occurred on July twenty eighth, nineteen seventy six,
Speaker 3: at seven twenty five am, Elgin Police detectives responded to
Speaker 3: the Elder Mental Health Center for a death investigation. Coincidentally,
Speaker 3: the lead detective for that case was actually the same
Speaker 3: detective who handled Lori Bulger's case months earlier and also
Speaker 3: later worked Rene Tovar's case in nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 5: His name was Detective Gary Shaver.
Speaker 4: Detective Shaver responded to the death of fifty eight year
Speaker 4: old Arnie Swanson, a patronette Whitehall Cottage on the property,
Speaker 4: who had been found by staff in his bed deceased.
Speaker 5: There was fresh blood.
Speaker 4: Present on his pillow, and by that afternoon, the Kinge
Speaker 4: County coroner's office had conducted an autopsy for the case.
Speaker 4: The coroner's office quickly determined that the cause of death
Speaker 4: was asphyxiation and that the manner of death was certainly
Speaker 4: not self inflicted. They ruled the case of homicide. As
Speaker 4: police investigated, they determined that a witness had seen another
Speaker 4: resident running into a bathroom from the direction of the
Speaker 4: victim's bedroom, so they interviewed that man, Jerry Hester, to
Speaker 4: determine if he was involved or witnessed the homicide. Here's
Speaker 4: what the actual police report says.
Speaker 6: Approximately forty five minutes after the interview began, Hester advised
Speaker 6: that he was going to tell what really happened, but quote,
Speaker 6: he was not Jerry. He was just a man in
Speaker 6: Jerry's body, and Jerry had done the worst wrong. He
Speaker 6: had killed a white man end quote. Detective Shaver asked
Speaker 6: Jerry Hester what he meant by this statement, and at
Speaker 6: this time he replied to the effect that Jerry had
Speaker 6: killed his friend Arnie.
Speaker 3: Jerry Hester went on to say that he both strangled
Speaker 3: and suffocated Arnie Swanson with a rope and a pillow.
Speaker 3: Although these statements were never used in any prosecution. Jerry
Speaker 3: Hester was later sent to the Chester, Illinois Mental Health
Speaker 3: Facility and deemed unfit to stand trial for murder. As
Speaker 3: far as we can tell based on those records, he
Speaker 3: was never released.
Speaker 4: A second murder occurred at the facility on November twenty second,
Speaker 4: nineteen seventy seven, the same day as Wayteria in Wayman's
Speaker 4: wedding anniversary. That homicide occurred in a bathroom at the
Speaker 4: Elgin Mental Health Center. The victim, like Arnie Swatson, was
Speaker 4: another name we read in season two when we read
Speaker 4: all the homicide victims from the nineteen seventies, and his
Speaker 4: name was Robert k.
Speaker 3: The case report for that investigation documented that the offender,
Speaker 3: James D. Tedford, had attempted to push both Robert Kay's
Speaker 3: head and another patient's head into a toilet the prior day,
Speaker 3: on November twenty first, staff had separated him from those
Speaker 3: victims and he had been reprimanded. However, on November twenty second,
Speaker 3: staff found Robert Kay with his head in the washroom's toilet,
Speaker 3: and they observed Tedford in the bathroom as well. Robert
Speaker 3: Kay was unconscious and not breathing.
Speaker 4: Tedford later admitted that I did it to the man,
Speaker 4: and I'm sorry and advised that he killed Kay in
Speaker 4: the bathroom. He was charged with murder and transferred to
Speaker 4: the Maximum Security Center in Chester, Illinois, just like Jerry Hester.
Speaker 4: On February twenty first, nineteen eighty James D. Tedford was
Speaker 4: found not guilty by reason of insanity and was also
Speaker 4: committed to the Department of Mental Health for the remainder
Speaker 4: of his life.
Speaker 3: As Chris said, we read both the names of Arnie
Speaker 3: Swanson and Robert Kay in our final episode of season two,
Speaker 3: but now our listeners have a little bit more information
Speaker 3: about those nineteen seventies homicides. However, there are a total
Speaker 3: of four murders on the property in our closed homicide
Speaker 3: case files, and the next one happened just four months
Speaker 3: for why Tia disappeared.
Speaker 4: At two thirteen pm on May twenty fifth, nineteen eighty two,
Speaker 4: fifty four year old Robert Lee Anderson was in the
Speaker 4: day room at the Killborn Building on the Elga Mental
Speaker 4: Health Center grounds. Another temporary patient, Thomas Lee McNeil, began
Speaker 4: arguing with Robert before grabbing a wooden chair and beating
Speaker 4: Robert with it as other witnesses looked on. Robert then
Speaker 4: fell to the floor had a seizure and later died
Speaker 4: from his injuries.
Speaker 3: McNeil later admitted that earlier in the day, he and
Speaker 3: Robert had an argument and that they had gotten into
Speaker 3: a physical fight. Staff separated them and put McNeil in
Speaker 3: the timeout room. As he stooed in the room, McNeil
Speaker 3: told the police that he was saying to himself, I'm
Speaker 3: going to try to kill him when I come out
Speaker 3: of the time, and when McNeil was released, he did
Speaker 3: just that.
Speaker 4: McNeil left the timeout room, walked over to the day room,
Speaker 4: grabbed the chair, and when Robert told him, don't hit
Speaker 4: me with that chair and he looked out the door,
Speaker 4: McNeil struck him hard in the back and head with
Speaker 4: the chair. McNeil later admitted that it was his intent
Speaker 4: to kill Robert, and he stated I attacked him with it.
Speaker 3: Thomas McNeil was charged with three counts of murder, but
Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty three he was found not guilty by
Speaker 3: reason of insanity. He, like the prior to offenders from
Speaker 3: the nineteen seventies, was committed to the Illinois Department of
Speaker 3: Mental Health for the remainder of his life.
Speaker 4: Robert Anderson was not the last thomicide victim at the property.
Speaker 4: One more victim was killed there on December one, nineteen
Speaker 4: eighty eight. Leleroy Porter, a thirty five year old black
Speaker 4: man who was receiving treatment at the facility, had gotten
Speaker 4: into an argument with another patient, Denver Hampton, over some
Speaker 4: clothing that Leroy was wearing. Hampton accused Leroy of stealing
Speaker 4: the clothing and began hitting him before strangling him with
Speaker 4: the belt.
Speaker 3: Denver Hampton was charged in that case, but like the
Speaker 3: other three murders, he was never convicted. Rather, Denver Hampton
Speaker 3: was also transferred to the custody of the Illinois Department
Speaker 3: of Health.
Speaker 4: We know why Teria had some connections to the Elgin
Speaker 4: Mental Health Center, and we are still waiting on those
Speaker 4: records to determine if she was ever actually housed there
Speaker 4: or had any contact with any of the people involved
Speaker 4: in any of those cases. While there are no connections
Speaker 4: between her and those specific cases, Andrew and I wanted
Speaker 4: to highlight and remember those victims as well as we
Speaker 4: worked on this season. We both feel that it's important
Speaker 4: to get an idea of the history of the facility
Speaker 4: and remember the four victims who are listed in our
Speaker 4: homicide files. Arnie Swanson was a fifty eight year old
Speaker 4: patient when he was murdered, and Robert k was sixty three.
Speaker 4: Both were murdered here in Elgin in the nineteen seventies.
Speaker 4: Robert Anderson was fifty four and Leroy Porter was only
Speaker 4: thirty five years old when they were both also found
Speaker 4: murdered here in Elgin. Four men, four mental health patients,
Speaker 4: and four murder victims.
Speaker 3: The four victims in all these cases were patients at
Speaker 3: a facility where they were supposed to be getting mental
Speaker 3: health care and they were killed there by other patients.
Speaker 3: It really highlights the issues with the history of both
Speaker 3: mental health and mental health care here in our state
Speaker 3: when you read Lee Reporter's case. For example, Leroy was
Speaker 3: reportedly your average six year old child when he started school,
Speaker 3: but when he was about seven years old, his aunt
Speaker 3: allegedly caught him stealing money out of her purse and
Speaker 3: she beat him so severely in the head with a
Speaker 3: cane that it caused brain damage. Lero was moved from
Speaker 3: his general education classroom at school to a special education
Speaker 3: classroom and showed little to no improvement after his injury.
Speaker 3: He slipped into a life of petty crime, shoplifting and
Speaker 3: the like, and then in his teenage years began abusing
Speaker 3: alcohol and drugs. He dropped out of school in the
Speaker 3: ninth grade and never held a job before bouncing around
Speaker 3: in and out of the criminal justice system. He then
Speaker 3: spent time at the Audi Youth Home as a juvenile,
Speaker 3: then the Chester Mental Health Center from nineteen seventy nine
Speaker 3: to nineteen eighty three, and was finally sent to the
Speaker 3: Ultimntal Health Center in nineteen eighty five, where he remained
Speaker 3: until his murder in nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 4: Today, mental health care for people like Arnie Swanson, Robert Kay,
Speaker 4: Robert Anderson, and Leroy Porter is different, but it's still
Speaker 4: not perfect. Many clinics around the state closed in the
Speaker 4: two thousands, but we do have resources here in Elgin.
Speaker 4: Here at the Elgin Police Department, we've become a national
Speaker 4: model for policing when it comes to mental health. We
Speaker 4: use specially trained officers on our Emergency Services Detail to
Speaker 4: respond to people in mental health crisis, along with trained
Speaker 4: social workers who respond as well to the scene with us.
Speaker 4: I myself spent time working in ESD before it became
Speaker 4: a detective, so I know the work they do on
Speaker 4: a daily basis. We are leading the charge to change
Speaker 4: how police deal with people in crisis. We also use
Speaker 4: crisis negotiators with our SWAT team and partner with area
Speaker 4: mental health facilities as well.
Speaker 3: The Elgin Police Department also created the Collaborative Crisis Services
Speaker 3: Unit to coordinate with our homeless population and with people
Speaker 3: suffering from mental illness and to help earing.
Speaker 5: Services like ESD.
Speaker 3: CCSU uses a coresponse model which pairs police officers with
Speaker 3: mental health professionals. CCSU conducts followup visits for individuals who
Speaker 3: could benefit from mental health or behavioral health services and
Speaker 3: the utilized community resources, including our own social services unit,
Speaker 3: to connect those individuals with services.
Speaker 5: The goal is simple to.
Speaker 3: Reduce patrol calls for service for those people and to
Speaker 3: help them get the care that they need. CCSU has
Speaker 3: three primary areas of focus Mental and behavioral health, substance
Speaker 3: use disorder services, and homelessness issues.
Speaker 4: Many people have come to Elgin to receive care from
Speaker 4: mental health, and the Elgin Mental Health Center has been
Speaker 4: here in Elgin for over one hundred and fifty years.
Speaker 4: But we'd like to think that if Waytyia had moved
Speaker 4: to Elgin today rather on nineteen eighty two, she would
Speaker 4: have received many more services, including assistance with moving her
Speaker 4: to a new location when the Douglas Hotel closed. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: a lot of those services that we now have just
Speaker 4: didn't exist in nineteen eighty two for Wayitiia, which is
Speaker 4: tragic and the lack of those services might be a
Speaker 4: part of the reason she disappeared.
Speaker 3: Well, we've taken our listeners back to the Douglas Hotel.
Speaker 3: We've walked around downtown Elgin where Wateria likely would have
Speaker 3: walked if she had gone to a bus stop. We've
Speaker 3: identified a potential bus stop, and we've taken a trip
Speaker 3: up to the Elge Mental Health Center, which provided her services.
Speaker 3: We've tried to cover the grounds that Waiteria covered in
Speaker 3: her brief time here in Elgin. And while it's possible
Speaker 3: if something happened here in Elgin, it's also possible that
Speaker 3: she did leave town.
Speaker 9: I know.
Speaker 3: Our second theory that we laid out in our first
Speaker 3: episode was that something happened here in Elgin. So far,
Speaker 3: we haven't found any evidence of that, but we will
Speaker 3: continue looking at that as an option.
Speaker 4: Yes we will, and as we wrap up this episode,
Speaker 4: we also wanted to address Wateria's mental health and briefly
Speaker 4: discuss theory number one, and that is that she simply
Speaker 4: left voluntarily or harmed herself. As we said in episode one,
Speaker 4: her sole source of income was her state benefits, and
Speaker 4: it doesn't seem likely that she would have left without
Speaker 4: reaching out to her children. So could she have harmed
Speaker 4: herself in some way? It certainly is possible, but it's
Speaker 4: hard to really say that very confidently.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely a possible, and like you said, we
Speaker 3: can't say it for certain Part of the problem is
Speaker 3: we don't know what Lewaitteriria's exact mental health concerns were
Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty two. Betha is helping us still try
Speaker 3: to get some of those records from the state of Illinois,
Speaker 3: and we're attempting to speak with counselors and people that
Speaker 3: knew her in nineteen eighty two, But so far we're
Speaker 3: still waiting on those records, and we're still searching for
Speaker 3: more people to interview that would have known her during
Speaker 3: her time here in Elgin.
Speaker 4: It is difficult to get access to mental health records,
Speaker 4: and we are currently going through that process. But HIPPA
Speaker 4: is something that we have to contend with when it
Speaker 4: comes to records such as that. We are still in
Speaker 4: that process trying to get access to records for her
Speaker 4: benefits and the services that she was getting, but it
Speaker 4: is taking time and tracking down some of the people
Speaker 4: who worked with her specifically would be extremely helpful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, And even now there's exceptions to HIPPOP.
Speaker 3: One of those major exceptions would allow mental health professionals
Speaker 3: to release information about a person if they felt that
Speaker 3: the person was a threat to themselves or to others.
Speaker 3: For example, if the person is suicidal or homicidal, police
Speaker 3: can be notified about that information. I have to say
Speaker 3: and waiteriri case. Her counselor that spoke to police did
Speaker 3: not mention anything about her being suicidal or homicidal, So
Speaker 3: we feel that that information would have likely been provided
Speaker 3: to police if she had mental health concerns that were
Speaker 3: that drastic, Plus she was apparently outpatient not inpatient at
Speaker 3: the mental health center. If she had made suicidal threats
Speaker 3: or was somehow a threat to herself in that capacity,
Speaker 3: it's likely that the service provider would have taken steps
Speaker 3: to protect her and put her in the elder mental
Speaker 3: health center. As opposed to being out, and it's likely
Speaker 3: that that information also would have been told to police,
Speaker 3: but again we can't say for sure until we have
Speaker 3: the records.
Speaker 4: Yes, I would agree if Waitiria was suicidal, it should
Speaker 4: be included in the information that we have in the
Speaker 4: original reports. And where would she go to harm herself?
Speaker 4: Why would she still be missing over forty years later?
Speaker 4: It seems fairly unlikely. As you said, we can't ever
Speaker 4: take an option one hundred percent off the table, but
Speaker 4: the idea that she was suicidal while seeking treatment seems
Speaker 4: highly unlikely. Hopefully we were able to get more records
Speaker 4: and track down more people who knew her in nineteen
Speaker 4: eighty two to get a better idea for state of mind,
Speaker 4: But for now, we at least feel that the idea
Speaker 4: that she left voluntarily without telling her children and without
Speaker 4: arranging to continue receiving her state benefits isn't so likely
Speaker 4: as other theories for this case.
Speaker 5: Similarly, the idea.
Speaker 4: That she harmed herself also seems less likely than other options,
Speaker 4: at least at this point in the investigation.
Speaker 3: Well, we have covered theory one and theory number two
Speaker 3: in this episode. Both Chris and I feel that theory
Speaker 3: number one that Waiteria simply voluntarily left or harmed herself
Speaker 3: in some way is fairly unlikely, but without additional records
Speaker 3: and evidence, we can't write that off entirely. Similarly, we
Speaker 3: haven't found any evidence to support that someone harmed her
Speaker 3: here in Elgin, and we feel fairly certain that her
Speaker 3: remains are not located within the old hotel site. But again,
Speaker 3: we need more information from the public and more records
Speaker 3: to try to piece together who she associated with an Elgin,
Speaker 3: who she lived with at the hotel, and what her
Speaker 3: life was really like when she lived here. Without that
Speaker 3: background information, we certainly can't rely out anything include that
Speaker 3: something happened here in Elgin.
Speaker 4: Yes, so again, if you have any information about why
Speaker 4: Tia Jones, please contact us. Background on her time here
Speaker 4: in Elgin, her hobbies, friends, her social activities, those all
Speaker 4: help us understand more about her, and they could potentially
Speaker 4: help us identify new witnesses to interview and new places
Speaker 4: to investigate. If you wish to remain anonymous, we can
Speaker 4: work with that, but we really do need people to
Speaker 4: help us in this public space. No tip is too small.
Speaker 3: This episode, we explored options for Wateria here in Elgin,
Speaker 3: and while we will continue to gather at records and
Speaker 3: information about our time here. It is still possible that
Speaker 3: something happened to Waityia in Elgin. Our investigation is about
Speaker 3: to take us, however, to other places that she might
Speaker 3: have traveled. Next episode, we will travel to Joliet, Illinois
Speaker 3: as we continue our search for answers in Wateryia's case.
Speaker 3: We will work to identify it and visit the hotel
Speaker 3: where one witness claims she planned to move, and we
Speaker 3: will seek out similar missing person cases that could be
Speaker 3: related to her disappearance. So please join us next time
Speaker 3: as we continue our search for Waitia Jones here.
Speaker 5: Let somebody know 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 Coldcase tips
Speaker 2: at elginil dot 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: coldcase page at www dot elgincoldcases dot com, where every
Speaker 2: cold case, homicide, and missingperson's case is listed with photographs
Speaker 2: and information about each case,