McHenry Co. child killer could go free after 47 years behind bars

A former McHenry County man locked up since raping and murdering a 3-year-old girl in 1962 could receive a partial release early next year under a court decision issued Wednesday.

A judge ruled Gary Welsh, 70, remains too dangerous to go completely free, but may be suitable for a conditional release program in which he would live under close supervision, likely in a state-run or state-contracted facility.

But before releasing him to that kind of setting, Judge Sharon Prather first ordered the Illinois Department of Human Services to prepare a report detailing where Welsh would live, how he would be monitored, how he would receive treatment for his sexual disorders and how the public would remain safe with him no longer incarcerated.

"At this point, Mr. Welsh will remain in a secure setting until the court sees that plan," Prather said.

The judge gave the DHS 60 days to prepare the report, during which time Welsh will continue to stay locked up in a state facility for sex offenders. She scheduled a March 19 hearing to review the report's findings and determine whether Welsh can go on conditional release, and under what conditions, or must remain locked up.

"This just gives him an opportunity to get out," said Welsh's court-appointed attorney, Senior Assistant Public Defender Richard Behof.

A repeat sex offender since his teens, Welsh has been in either state prison or state-run mental institutions since September 1962, when he sexually assaulted and killed a girl he was baby-sitting in Harvard. Authorities said the girl suffocated when Welsh pushed her face into a pillow to muffle her cries.

He had been scheduled for release from a prison sentence in December 2004 when the state moved to have him declared a sexually violent person. Prather granted that designation in January 2008, allowing the state to hold him in DHS custody until doctors and a judge agree he no longer is a threat to commit more sex crimes.

In hearings last month, a psychologist testifying on behalf of state prosecutors said Welsh is still a pedophile and a risk to re-offend, but that conditional release under tight supervision was appropriate for him.