Elgin man accused of child rapes dies while awaiting trial
Kane County prosecutors have closed a child sex assault and abuse case from the 1990s and 2011 against an Elgin man because he has died.
William R. Ahrens, 77, of the 0-99 block of DuBois Avenue, was charged in early January 2017 with 35 felony counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, aggravated criminal sexual abuse and other felonies.
Ahrens was charged with assaulting a girl he knew from May 1990 through May 1996 and a second girl from February 2011 to February 2012, according to county court records.
One accuser told authorities Ahrens abused her in the summer of 2011; the woman who says she was assaulted in the 1990s went to police in August 2016, saying she was assaulted on a weekly basis at Ahrens's residence.
Ahrens had been free after posting bond in the case, but missed court earlier this year. Ahrens' attorney, Brian Erwin, informed the judge in February Ahrens was critically ill and could not leave his house. By April, his condition had worsened and he was in a nursing home.
He died June 22 and the case was closed last week, records show.