Zion mother wants search for dead son to continue
The mother of deceased 5-month-old Joshua Summeries wants police to continue the search for her son's body in a Zion landfill, a family spokesman said during a news conference Wednesday.
Kisha Summeries stood silently with Joshua's godmother in front of the landfill at 701 Green Bay Road, as spokesman Clyde McLemore said the family is upset that police have ended the search. The family is urging “the governor, the United States attorney general and even President Obama” to offer more manpower.
“We understand there's a lot of trash, but we ask they continue to search. (Kisha) can't have closure,” McLemore said.
The search was ended Sunday night, four days after Kisha Summeries reported her son missing on the morning of Aug. 22.
Police questioned her boyfriend, Demetries Thorpe, for two days before he confessed to suffocating the baby, putting the body in a backpack and dropping it into a Dumpster behind his house, Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim has said.
Thorpe, who said he was trying to stop the baby from crying, is charged with first-degree murder and is held at Lake County jail.
Police have video footage of Thorpe at the Dumpster, which is regularly taken to the Zion landfill.
Zion police teamed up with the Illinois and Wisconsin National Guard members to search for the body in the landfill. The effort ended Sunday night after crews found nothing during the “exhaustive” search, officials said.
Kisha Summeries understands the body may not be in one piece, McLemore said, but she and the baby's father refuse to have a memorial until the body is found.
Joshua Summeries was Kisha's fifth child. Her other four children are in custody of the Department of Child and Family Services, McLemore said.