Son charged in Crystal Lake mother's slaying
An 80-year-old Crystal Lake woman who less than three years ago sought protection from her severely mentally ill son was brutally beaten and stabbed to death by him Friday afternoon inside the home they shared, authorities said.
James E. Trzcinski, 50, of the 3400 block of East Crystal Lake Avenue, was charged late Friday with three counts of first-degree murder in the death of his mother, Dorothy B. Trzcinski.
Authorities say he repeatedly bludgeoned and stabbed his mother, then waited inside the home for police to arrive and arrest him.
McHenry County sheriff's deputies found Dorothy Trzcinski's dead body about 1:14 p.m. while responding to a 911 call authorities believe she made just seven minutes earlier.
"Some noise could be heard, but nobody communicated directly with our dispatcher," Sheriff Keith Nygren said at a news conference Friday night.
"James was taken into custody, questioned and subsequently implicated himself in this crime," Nygren said. "No other suspects are being sought."
Nygren declined to comment on what James Trzcinski told investigators or what led to Friday's violent altercation between mother and son.
Trzcinski was taken after his arrest to the county jail, where he will remain pending a bond hearing Saturday morning.
McHenry County court records show Friday's slaying was not the first time Trzcinski was accused of violent acts toward his mother. In July 2007, Dorothy Trzcinski obtained an order of protection against her son after, the petition states, he attacked her in the family home.
"He called me the devil," she wrote. "I went to leave the house, he followed me and pushed me into the brick fireplace. I struck my head on the cement which caused pain and bleeding."
She said her son had severe psychiatric problems since early in life and was diagnosed as schizophrenic as a 16-year-old. Court records show he had received services in recent years through the McHenry-based Pioneer Center for Human Services.
"I am afraid of my son and his violent behavior," she wrote. "I am 77 years old and cannot control my son when he fails to take his medications."
Nygren said Trzcinski had not been on his medications at the time of Friday's murder.
James Trzcinski was arrested on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge in connection with the July 2007 incident, but the case was dismissed about five months later. Court records do not show why the case was dropped, but they do indicate he tried to get into the county's mental health court and spent at least some time while the case was pending in the Elgin Mental Health Center.
The order of protection was vacated at his mother's request in January 2008 and, according to authorities, he was living with his mother again up until today's slaying.
It is the third time in less than a month that a son has been accused of killing a parent in the northern Fox Valley. On Feb. 8, Algonquin police said, 16-year-old David Szalonek shot his father to death inside the family home. Three days later, Martin Green, 26, of Fox River Grove was charged with first-degree murder after police said he beat his 52-year-old stepmother to death with a hammer, also inside the family's home.
As with Trzcinski, both suspects in those killings suffered from mental illness, according to sources in both cases.