35 years for killing Palatine teacher
Family and friends of Cindy Wolosick wept openly and shook their heads in apparent disbelief today as 50-year-old Diana Thames told the court she had not murdered her best friend in a Palatine condominium almost three years ago.
In her statement before being sentenced to 35 years for first-degree murder at the Rolling Meadows courthouse, Thames called Cindy Wolosick her "dearest friend" and said that she was incapable of committing such a crime.
"I have the deepest sympathies for Cindy's family, but I am not remorseful for a crime that I did not commit," said Thames, who's from downstate Bloomington.
Thames was convicted in January of the slaying of Wolosick, a speech and language teacher at Lake Louise School in Palatine.
On Aug. 12, 2005, Wolosick, 47, was stabbed more than 25 times inside her second-floor condo at 50 Parkshores Drive where Thames had been spending the night after the two returned from a vacation together in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Prosecutors alleged Thames stabbed Wolosick in the head, neck and chest with a kitchen knife after the two argued over the finances of the home rehab business they jointly owned.
Although Thames has professed her innocence, Wolosick's family has not believed her.
Wolosick's brothers, Michael of St. Louis, and John of Marietta, Ga., and her parents, John and Louise of Springfield, asked Judge John J. Scotillo to give Thames a sentence that'd put her away for the rest of her life.
The family described sleepless nights and fears that Thames would hurt them if she were ever let out of prison.
"Since she killed someone that meant the world to her, she'll kill again," John and Louise Wolosick said in a victim statement read for them in court by Jill Flynn, Wolosick's cousin.
After sentencing, Wolosick's father said he was satisfied, but that it was cold comfort.
"Nothing will bring her back," John Wolosick said. "Not 35 years. Not 100 years. She's never coming back."
The two women had been close friends for the last 20 years, meeting while attending Illinois State University in Normal.
In 2002, the pair decided to co-own a home rehab and resale business.
In 2005, Palatine police said Thames called police at 5 a.m. to report Wolosick had been stabbed. Thames told police she'd found Wolosick, bloody but still alive, lying in her bedroom.
After being confronted with the evidence and inconsistencies in her original statement, Thames made a videotaped confession, police said.
But later Thames said she'd been coerced into make that confession. She maintained that on the night of the murder, she'd heard a door buzzer and a man's voice. She said she later awoke to hear the front door closing and a motorcycle leaving.