Two killed in separate Hanover Park incidents

The DuPage County coroner was expected to have more information Sunday afternoon on what could be the third homicide in Hanover Park in as many days.

Police released no new information about the latest investigation Sunday morning. In a news release Saturday night, they said only that authorities responded about 6 p.m. Saturday to a 911 call from a home in the area of County Farm Road and Lawrence. Police found a person already dead when they arrived at the house.

The DuPage County Major Crimes Task force is investigating.

Hanover Park Mayor Rod Craig said he had no words to describe news of the latest crime.

"I just can't believe it," he said. "I thought I ran out of words two murders ago."

Police and Craig said no further details would be released until the next of kin were notified. Craig said there doesn't seem to be any relationship to the other two murders that happened earlier in the week.

"I don't know what small town has to deal with this kind of stuff," Craig said. "I don't know if it's the economy, but to see it all occurring in my town ... ."

On Thursday, 31-year-old Norma Favela, a pregnant mother of two, was killed.

The second homicide occurred about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, when 23-year-old Diontae Roberts was stabbed at a party.

Craig said he's trying to do what he can to curb violence in town but was stunned at the turn of events this week.

"I'm talking to everybody I can talk to," he said. The latest death appears to be unrelated to the two earlier crimes, authorities said.

Roberts, 23, of Hanover Park, was stabbed to death in a fight that broke out about 12:30 a.m. Saturday. Police interviewed about 30 people Saturday but released limited details, and it was unknown if a suspect was in custody.

Roberts' brother Mike Cherry also was injured in the fight at a home on the 8000 block of Catawba Lane in Hanover Park, family members said.

Cherry was taken to St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates and was expected to be released soon, relatives said.

They said the two were attacked when they went to help a third brother.

The homicides are another disturbing case of violence this spring in Hanover Park, just days after the Thursday slaying of 31-year-old Norma Favela, a pregnant mother of two. Authorities have charged the woman's boyfriend with murder.

Roberts died of multiple stab wounds at 3:15 a.m. at St. Alexius Medical Center, a Cook County medical examiner's office spokesman said.

Family and friends grieved together outside his parents' home in Hanover Park.

"You never go to sleep and think you're going to be short one of your kids the next day," Diontae's father Harold Cherry said. "He was very caring, very giving. That was his downfall. That hurts the most."

Roberts attended Hoffman Estates High School, playing on the football team, getting recognition for his interceptions and offers from colleges. He kept up that love for football after graduating, getting together with friends every Sunday for a game.

Roberts' girlfriend, Angelika Skowron, said Roberts had some issues with police in the past, but he was hoping to make a new start in automobile maintenance.

Now, she's trying to explain to her children, Myki, 8, and Gaby, 5, why the man who had become a father figure to them wasn't coming home.

"He was going to take me to the skate park," Myki said. "He helped me with my homework anytime I had problems."

While Skowron remembered a boyfriend who always tried to accommodate her, Diontae's dad recalled a son who wasn't afraid of showing off his singing voice and still cherished family ties.

"He called me up a few days ago and said, 'When are we going camping?'" Cherry said. "As he got older, he still wanted to be with his family."

"Not a single person I know had anything bad to say about him," Skowron said.

One neighbor said the party appeared to involve a lot of underage youths who were drinking and playing loud music.

"My understanding is that it was either a birthday or a post-graduation party," Craig said. "A couple of characters show up and we have a problem - now someone has lost their life."

The crime happened in a stable, "nice" area of the village, Craig said, adding he did not know if it was gang-related.

Since March, the village has been hit with a rash of shootings and stabbings involving teenagers, and a number of the incidents are linked to gang activity.

Craig said the village is doing all it can to stem violence, including gang prevention seminars for parents and forming a mayor's advisory council with social workers, educators, police and clergy aimed at developing preventive strategies.

He spoke with U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam, who represents the village, Saturday morning about the need for economic stimulus money to hire more police officers.

"We're all concerned, and we want to be as proactive as possible," said Craig, who visited the Catawba neighborhood Saturday morning. "We've got to be hard on the problem. We can't accept these type of events."

And success depends on everyone, he added.

"We need to work as one big family and assist each other," he said.

That thought was echoed by Beverly Overall, who lives a short distance from the crime scene.

"We need to be more concerned," she said. "People in the neighborhood need to keep an eye on what's going on."

Overall, along with friends Maria DiNuzzo and Monica Szamdecka, watched investigators at work behind police tape on Catawba Lane. The tree-lined streets, freshly cut lawns and DiNuzzo's impeccable garden where peonies were making a show didn't look like they should be connected to a crime scene.

"It's shocking this happened right here," DiNuzzo said.

Overall was waked by emergency lights flashing about 1 a.m.

"I said, 'What is going on?' I thought it was another drug deal gone wrong," she said.

She's worried about property values, noting that "if you look at the neighborhood on a scale of one to 10, I'd put it at a seven and it's going down."

"It's just crazy," Szamdecka said.

On Friday night, Hanover Park sponsored a Relay for Life walk to raise money for cancer research and support survivors. Craig said he thought the charity event might be the topic of the day, only to learn about another homicide.

"All this good work gets lost because of a crazy person with a knife," he said.

The village and Elgin Area Unit District 46 will hold a gang-awareness forum for parents from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Laurel Hill Elementary School, 1750 Laurel Ave.

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