Murder suspect 'was walking back to Waukegan,' police say
Clarence Weber Jr. told a Lake County, Ind., sheriff's deputy he "was trying to walk back to Waukegan" when the deputy encountered Weber on a road early Tuesday morning.
Weber, 58, is charged with murdering his 31-year-old wife, Adelina, on Saturday in a parking lot outside the SpringHill Suites in Lincolnshire about a week after she filed for divorce. She died from a single stab wound to the chest.
Adelina's sister-in-law, Cynthia Trujillo, said the family was glad to learn Weber was captured by police. "It was a big sigh of relief," she told ABC 7 Chicago. "We were really concerned for our safety."
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The murder touched off a search for Weber that took police to Indiana when a local sheriff's deputy spotted Weber's rented red Chevrolet Equinox outside a truck stop on Interstate 65 about 4 p.m. Monday, said Michael Higgins, a spokesman for the Lake County, Ind., sheriff's office.
Weber, who Higgins said can be seen on a security camera video inside the store, was able to elude police and fled the store on foot.
His escape triggered a massive manhunt in the surrounding area, Higgins said, involving airplanes, helicopters and police searching on foot.
The search was called off about 11 p.m. when infrared cameras in the aircraft could not pick up any images.
Around 6 a.m. Tuesday, Higgins said, residents of an area near Lake Station, Ind., began calling the sheriff's office to report that a man fitting Weber's description was walking on the road in front of their houses.
A deputy assigned to the U.S. Marshal's fugitive task force was dispatched to the area and arrested Weber without incident.
"The entire thing was uneventful," Higgins said. "He told our guy he was trying to walk back to Waukegan."
Adelina Weber was the kind of person who "looked forward to life" and who liked to work things out with dialogue, Trujillo said. After Adelina became a single mother, "she wanted to be somebody for her children," Trujillo told ABC 7.
Diane Poulton, a prosecutor in Lake County, Ind., said Weber would be brought before a judge today and informed of his right to fight extradition to Illinois.
Should Weber decide not to contest the matter, it is possible he would be back in Waukegan later today, Poulton said. If Weber tries to fight extradition, Poulton said, officials here would have to obtain what is known as a governor's warrant to force the Indiana courts to turn over Weber to local police.
In Illinois, Lake County Deputy State's Attorney Jeff Pavletic said Lincolnshire police went to Indiana late Monday and brought Weber's car back to Waukegan where it will be searched for evidence.
He said detectives from the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force were in Indiana on Tuesday seeking to interview Weber about the crime.
"Our (wish) is that we hope he gets punished with the force of the law," Trujillo told ABC 7.
The couple had been married six years, and court documents show signs of conflict and stress mounting in their lives in the months leading up to Adelina Weber's murder. Starting in early April, the couple applied for orders of protection against each other, experienced a suspicious fire that destroyed their Waukegan home and initiated divorce proceedings.
Police said Adelina Weber had gone to the Lincolnshire hotel to meet with her husband, whom she had lived apart from since early May, and despite the active order of protection she had against him.
Florida records show Clarence Weber spent six years in prison there from 1989 to 1995 after he was convicted of attempting to murder his first wife.
He also was convicted of kidnapping his 8-year-old daughter, aggravated assault, battery of a law enforcement official, arson, burglary, grand theft and resisting arrest.
Daily Herald staff writer Amie Shak and the Associated Press contributed to this report.