Trial date set for man accused in 2013 Glen Ellyn slaying

After a series of delays, a 45-year-old homeless man is set to stand trial for fatally stabbing his girlfriend in October 2013 and burying her in a Glen Ellyn park.

DuPage County Judge Brian Telander on Tuesday set a Jan. 8 trial date for Myron Ester. Ester has been held without bail since his arrest, about a week after the slaying, and is charged with five counts of first-degree murder and one count of concealment of a homicidal death.

Most recently, Ester's trial was delayed last month when Telander became ill. Prior to that, Ester's Dec 2016 trial date was postponed less than a month before it was scheduled to start when Ester's attorney argued that prosecutors failed to disclose a recorded jail call, made by Ester, that they intended to use in their prosecution.

Prosecutors say Ester repeatedly stabbed 33-year-old Linda Valez and left her body in a shallow grave in Panfish Park on the night of Sept. 24, 2013.

Prosecutors said Valez, a mother of seven, was stabbed in the face, neck and torso. An autopsy uncovered 34 wounds, including defensive marks on her arms.

The victim's mother called police after Valez missed a Sept. 25 appointment to look at an apartment with a friend.

Surveillance footage showed Ester and Valez leaving the McDonald's restaurant on Roosevelt Road in Glen Ellyn together on Sept. 24. About 2 a.m. the next day, prosecutors said, Ester sought medical treatment at a fire station for a cut on his hand.

Ester then went to a friend's Naperville home and allegedly confessed to killing Valez. When the friend suggested they call police, Ester laughed and said he didn't kill her but had broken up with her, prosecutors said.

Investigators arrested Ester the next day. He told police he and Valez were drinking alcohol at Panfish Park when they began arguing about their relationship and she came at him with a knife, authorities said.

Ester claimed he grabbed the knife and threw it to the ground, then "blacked out."

Glen Ellyn police later found the shallow grave where Valez was buried after noticing a "drag pattern" and foot traffic in a park clearing.