On the precipice of settling one of the nation's most tragic and longest-running cases - the murder of Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville - a jury came agonizingly close to, but stopped short of, a sentencing decision late Tuesday.

Members picked up their deliberations just before 9:30 a.m. today after being sequestered overnight under the watch of deputy sheriffs, in a Lisle hotel. So far, the panel of seven women and five men have made one half dozen requests to review different evidence, including defense expert reports and testimony transcripts. Jurors also wanted to listen to Dugan's 1985 taped confession to one of his three murders, and to see a 1986 search warrant police obtained to collect his hair sample in the Nicarico investigation.

By noon, the jury had requested lunch, indicating a verdict may not be imminent.

The jury announced it had reached a decision at 10 p.m. Tuesday on whether Dugan should be executed for Jeanine's 1983 murder. Her parents and siblings, as well as families of Dugan's other victims, filed back into the courtroom after a plexiglass security shield was put up, separating Dugan from the gallery.

But unexpectedly, the jury gave word that it wanted to deliberate further. The weight of the jury's task was evident in the solemn expressions they wore at about 11 p.m., when Circuit Judge George Bakalis let them adjourn for the night.

Their closed-door discussions began after the panel listened to nearly six hours of impassioned closing arguments about Jeanine's Feb. 25, 1983, abduction, rape, and fatal bludgeoning.

Dugan was portrayed as either a manipulative psychopath devoid of remorse, or an aging man with a defective brain who long ago tried to atone for his violence.

"Remember this little girl," DuPage State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said, holding up a photo of the gaptoothed child. "Make sure he never forgets what he did to her. The death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst. Brian Dugan is the worst of the worst."

Tom and Pat Nicarico, with their other two daughters, Chris and Kathy, wiped away tears while recalling the bubbly fifth-grader they long ago lost, but will never forget, as prosecutors told of her final horrifying moments.

Dugan kicked in the Nicaricos' front door on Clover Court while Jeanine was home alone, out of school sick with the flu. Kathy Nicarico, at 13, returned home from school to find a broken front door. Jeanine had vanished. Their dog, Ruffles, cowered in the laundry room.

Two days later, Jeanine's brutalized body was found along the Illinois Prairie Path. Jeanine was blindfolded, and her Seven Dwarfs nightgown, with the words "I'm Sleepy," was pulled up around her arm and neck.

Dugan, 53, has served life terms since 1985 for the sex slayings of nurse Donna Schnorr, 27, of Geneva, and 7-year-old Missy Ackerman of Somonauk. He abducted, sexually assaulted and drowned both victims, 11 months apart.

All of his victims' families and several surviving women, including Opal Horton, who escaped and watched in horror as Dugan drove off with a terrified Missy pounding on the window, have been coming to court.

The killer's family long ago cut ties, but one brother, Steve Dugan, listened during closing arguments. It was the first appearance of a Dugan relative since the hearing began six weeks ago.

The Nicaricos support a death sentence. The family thanked the jury, law enforcement, their friends and community for its support, and the surviving victims who testified during the six-week hearing.

"They tore off the scabs from the emotion and psychological wounds which they had been trying to heal for many years," Tom Nicarico said. "They exposed the rawness of their very personal pain and revisited humiliations and inner fears in an effort to ease ours."

Added Karen Schweitzer, the slain nurse's sister: "I wouldn't consider anything else but being (at the hearing) every day, for Donna. It's all I can do for her now. She's still such a big part of our lives and always will be."

The Nicaricos endured multiple trials of three wrongly accused men, including Rolando Cruz, who spent years on death row before his 1995 acquittal. Prosecutors indicted Dugan in November 2005, and he admitted his guilt more than three months ago, sparking his sentencing hearing.

But the defense team, led by attorney Steven Greenberg, fought hard to save Dugan's life.

His attorneys presented expert testimony that Dugan, similar to other diagnosed psychopaths, has a defect or inactivity in an area of his brain that processes emotion, inhibition, judgment and self-control. The murderer's psychopathy test score was a 37 out of 40, compared to a 4 for the average person.

Dugan has taken steps to improve himself behind bars, such as continuing his education, avoiding serious trouble in prison, and helping younger inmates with legal issues.

Dugan did not testify, but jurors heard his words through recorded interviews, dating from 1985. In his most recent interview, on Sept. 5, Dugan told a defense expert that something inside of him would just "click," sparking him to rape and kill. Dugan said he didn't view his victims as real human beings, and it was only when he did connect with them on some level that he let them live.

He often spoke of his fear of the death penalty, but recently commented he didn't care because it would give him, "an early release." The son of alcoholics, he suffered some childhood abuse and likely was sexually assaulted in prison, testimony revealed.

His attorneys also argued Dugan deserves credit for pleading guilty. They said Dugan agreed to admit as early as 1985 that he alone killed Jeanine if prosecutors would not seek the death penalty. They refused. They also didn't believe him, as Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez sat on death row.

Dugan continued talking, after his other plea deals were done, even though he was under no obligation to do so, his attorneys said. In fact, he penned a written confession Nov. 1, 1985 that ended with, "in the event of my death, to ensure that innocent people are not murdered by the state for a crime they had no part of."

"What we're deciding here is whether to send a mentally ill person who saved two other men's lives to death," Greenberg said. "There's no chance death is appropriate given the unique circumstances of this case."