DuPage cases dismissed against killer Runge

Because they can’t put Paul Runge to death, DuPage County prosecutors Wednesday said they had little choice than to dismiss the last two murder cases against the man suspected of killing six women and a child in the 1990s.

“There’s no additional punishment that can be given to him,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said of Runge, who already is serving a life term without parole.

Runge, 41, was not present in court as the final chapters in his 10-year legal saga were closed without fanfare.

Prosecutors dismissed allegations he handcuffed, bludgeoned, raped, tortured and strangled sisters Dzaneta Pasanbegovic, 22, and Amela Pasanbegovic, 20, after hiring them to clean his Glendale Heights home in July 1995. The move comes about five months after Cook County prosecutors dismissed three other cases against Runge, also citing Illinois’ abolishment of the death penalty in March.

Berlin said it would not be a “prudent use of resources” to continue prosecuting Runge when he can face no additional punishment.

“I do not take this action lightly as I know to some it may appear as if Mr. Runge has, in essence, gotten away with murder,” Berlin said in a written statement. “While this may appear to be the case, the fact is Mr. Runge will spend the rest of his life behind bars.”

Runge had been sentenced to the death penalty after being convicted in Cook County of raping and killing Yolanda Gutierrez, 35, and her 10-year-old daughter, Jessica Muniz, in their Chicago apartment in 1997, and 24-year-old Stacey Frobel of Carol Stream two years earlier, in 1995.

But in March he became one of 15 Illinois death row inmates to see their sentences commuted to life in prison by Gov. Pat Quinn, who signed a law abolishing the death penalty.

Assistant State’s Attorney Bernard Murray said the parents of the Pasanbegovic sisters were “frankly upset” the case would never go to trial. He said the sisters had fled to Hanover Park from Bosnia, where their family members still live, to escape the war-torn country’s violence.

“It’s just horrific they were sent by their parents to avoid the fate they came to face in Illinois,” he said. “Paul Runge is and was the worst of the worst. I believe the death penalty should have been preserved for him.”

Runge’s attorney, Neil Levine, said outside of court he hadn’t spoken to his client recently but would inform him of the state’s decision.

“Our deepest sympathies go to the Pasanbegovic family. We wish them peace and solace,” he said. “We also are extremely grateful that Paul Runge will not be subject to execution.”

Although the Pasanbegovic sisters’ bodies were never found, Runge confessed in 2001 to their murders and five others after advancements in DNA technology led to him as a suspect, authorities said.

Runge, who also had lived in Carol Stream, remains imprisoned in Pontiac Correctional Center.