Bloomingdale's tragedies: A symptom of our troubled times?

A typical day in Bloomingdale is usually no different from its neighboring suburbs.

Children in the quiet village of about 22,000 attend its four elementary schools or play in its parks.

Shoppers file in and out of Stratford Square Mall and dine at local restaurants.

Faithful flock to local churches such as St. Isidore, the largest Catholic Church in the Joliet Diocese.

But this month was anything but typical, as Bloomingdale police responded to what they called a murder-attempted suicide, and then to another death scene in less than two weeks.

Tragedy struck first on Nov. 3, when police discovered a 4-year-old lying in a bathtub with her throat slashed at a townhouse on Amhurst Court. DuPage County prosecutors charged her mother, Marci Webber, 43, of upstate New York, with the crime. Webber also had self-inflicted wounds.

Then on Nov. 15, police lined with crime scene tape another townhouse, this one on the 100 block of Springbrook Drive, just behind the Springbrook Shopping center along Lake Street. This time, they found 57-year-old William Schultz, and his mother, Marjorie Schultz, 88, dead in her home from apparent drug overdoses. Police called the deaths a murder-suicide.

The DuPage County Coroner's office is conducting toxicology and pathology reports that will reveal what substance killed the pair.

Murders are rare in DuPage County. Only six homicides were reported countywide last year, according to the sheriff's annual report.

The two fatal domestic incidents, most agree, are an anomaly. But they might also be a reflection of our troubled times.

“I don't think this is indicative of Bloomingdale as a community,” said Police Chief Frank Giammarese. “This is, perhaps, more indicative of something happening in society as a whole. We are seeing people more stressed out, with work challenges and economic difficulties, and some people are handling them differently.”

Added Village President Bob Iden: “It's one of those things you can't see coming, but you feel badly when it happens in your town. But I think events like these are more internal and I don't think you can prevent that in any community in the country.”

Police are revealing few details about the deaths of Marjorie Schultz and her son, except that William would travel from his home in Carol Stream to help care for his mother when her full-time caregiver was away.

Giammarese said detectives continue to investigate how the crime unfolded.

Marjorie, whom neighbors said lived in Bloomingdale for more than a decade, suffered from health problems. They also said she experienced a stroke in recent years.

Area residents like Maryanne Cummiskey, who lived in Bloomingdale for more than 20 years before moving to Winfield and still attends St. Isidore, said she's concerned about the Schultz family but not because the crime happened so close to home.

“I would be looking at the bigger problem of the elderly being taken care of in the home by those who are not mentally equipped to handle the challenge,” she said. “It is huge. I can't even imagine the terrible situations elderly have to deal with when their children get so frustrated with the responsibility that extreme measures are chosen.”

Meanwhile, the motives behind the death of Webber's daughter, Magdalene, are being revealed through DuPage County court hearings.

Court records show that, during a police interview two days after Magdalene's body was found, Webber said she slashed her daughter's throat “to avoid having her child being abused and turned into a sex slave, and being tortured and killed by having her head cut off.”

Webber remains on suicide watch in jail and must be with a sheriff's deputy at all times. A judge delayed a mental fitness exam last week after defense attorneys argued they had not received adequate time to meet with Webber due to her suicide watch. She is due back in court Monday.

Several Bloomingdale residents, including Peter Zivkovic who has lived there for more than 20 years, said Magdalene's murder is an unexpected horror in the quiet village. But he said the crime doesn't threaten residents because it wasn't random.

“You don't expect it to happen, and it was kind of a shocker to find out it was the mother (who was charged), but she was from (New York) and was kind of an outsider that came in,” Zivkovic said.

Not everyone is able to mentally distance themselves from the crimes, particularly the police officers who responded to both scenes.

Giammarese said he called in a Critical Incident Management Team, which includes psychologists, to work with officers who need help working through the trauma. He said the death of the child was especially a concern.

“Our people are human,” Giammarese said. “A vast majority all have kids and seeing something like that is going to affect our people. This is something our people have to live with for the rest of their lives.”