Man charged in fatal stabbing of 14-year-old girl
A man charged with stabbing a 14-year-old Indian Head Park girl to death after she allegedly walked in on him burglarizing her house kept the teen's cell phone after the attack and used it to send "taunting and disturbing" messages to her family, prosecutors said Friday.
John Wilson Jr., 38, was charged with first-degree murder and residential burglary in the death of Kelli O'Laughlin last week, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said. The girl was stabbed in the back, neck and chest after coming home from school Oct. 27 to find Wilson burglarizing her family's home in Indian Head Park, a small town about 15 miles southwest of Chicago, Alvarez said.
A judge on Friday ordered Wilson held without bond.
The girl's mother found her daughter, who died after being rushed to a hospital. Her funeral was held Friday.
Authorities did not specify the content of the text messages sent to the girl's mother, but Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said "words cannot describe" the pain they suffered.
"Even the most experienced investigators and prosecutors have been brought to tears by the very facts of this case and the chilling nature of this case," Alvarez said.
Law enforcement authorities were able to trace the girl's and Wilson's cell phones, and DNA evidence from a knit cap left at the scene matched Wilson's, Alvarez said. She said Wilson used a rock placed inside the cap to break a window on the home.
She said Wilson allegedly stole foreign coins from a bowl in the family's home and used them to pay a taxi driver to take him to a Chicago train station. She said foreign coins were recovered from the driver.
Wilson was paroled from an Illinois prison last year after serving 7½ years of an 11-year sentence for robbery. Illinois Department of Corrections records also show he had served prison time on prior convictions for aggravated battery, auto theft and drug possession.
The killing shocked the small residential community where serious crime is rare, and anonymous donors quickly offered a $60,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her killer.