The final, violent days of Brian Dugan's freedom
In his final days of freedom, Brian Dugan's sexual violence spun into a frenzy.
• May 6, 1985: He followed a 21-year-old Aurora woman home and, after overpowering her with a knife, drove his victim while blindfolded and bound to a secluded spot and raped her.
• May 28, 1985: Dugan tried to abduct a 19-year-old Geneva girl walking along Route 31. She escaped his headlock and fled across the street.
• May 29, 1985: He forced a 16-year-old Aurora girl into his car as she walked alone down a residential street. He covered her face with a small blanket, put a belt around her neck and drove her to a secluded spot, where he raped her.
On Tuesday, the three survivors and a fourth woman who escaped after a May 13, 1983 abduction outside an Aurora laundromat identified Dugan in court as their attacker. Despite the passage of time, the fear they described back then was evident as some choked back tears or avoided eye contact with the now gray-haired, bespectacled defendant.
A DuPage County jury heard the women's emotional testimony as they decide whether Dugan should be executed for the Feb. 25, 1983, abduction, rape and bludgeoning of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville. Dugan, 53, pleaded guilty July 28.
It marked his first murder. Before police caught up with him, Dugan also abducted, raped and drowned 27-year-old Geneva nurse Donna Schnorr on July 15, 1984, and Melissa Ackerman, 7, of Somonauk, June 2, 1985. He has been in prison since 1985 serving life terms for the two sex slayings and additional years for the three May 1985 sex attacks.
In some cases, Dugan afterward told the women part or all of his name, tried to strike up small talk and apologized. He left them all with the same warning not to go to police.
"I'm going to drive away," the woman from the May 6, 1985 attack recalled him telling her. "If you turn around, I'm going to come back and kill you."
Before jurors left for the day, DuPage Circuit Judge George Bakalis cautioned them not to be swayed by another big death penalty case in the news - the 1993 Palatine Brown's Chicken mass murder. Hours later, a Cook County jury spared that killer's life.
"I'm sure I don't have to remind you of this," Bakalis said, "but whatever happens in that case ... it has no bearing, no relevance, no connection to this case. Your verdict must be based only on the evidence and the law in this case."
Dugan's defense team is trying to save his life by arguing he is a diagnosed psychopath who because of a genetic brain defect lacks the ability to feel true emotion or to control his impulsivity and sexual promiscuity.
In seeking a death sentence, prosecutors detailed Dugan's litany of horrific crimes. So far, as his sentencing hearing entered its third week, jurors heard about nine sexual assaults or attempts from 1974 to 1985 of women who survived. Dugan also admitted to two or three others in which his victims were never identified.
The testimony of his final surviving victim is expected Wednesday. The woman, then 8, was with Melissa Ackerman when Dugan tried to abduct them both. She escaped, hid and watched in horror as Dugan pulled away with her terrified friend.