Man accused of murder hoarded meds to kill self in DuPage jail

A jailed Bob Rejda committed suicide last month after deliberately overdosing on medication he hoarded, ending a death penalty case saturated with sexual violence, authorities said Monday.

Deputies found an unconscious Rejda, 26, in his jail cell Dec. 14 while he was being held without bond for the Christmas Day 2006 murder of a former classmate near Oakbrook Terrace.

In court Monday, DuPage County State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said preliminary toxicology findings showed Rejda consumed several prescriptions, one of which he had 100 times the therapeutic level in his system.

Birkett said Rejda must have stockpiled his prescriptions while in the Wheaton jail. He was not on a suicide watch, despite past attempts, but sheriff's deputies were checking on him every 15 minutes daily.

Rejda left behind two suicide notes, one in which he apologized to the grandmother who raised him as her own. Birkett said Rejda admitted killing 24-year-old Lauren Kiefer and conceded his suicide was taking "the easy way out."

Authorities declined to release the suicide notes for public consumption until an official coroner's report is complete.

"He did accept legal responsibility for the murder of Lauren Kiefer," Birkett said. "He said he was under the influence of drugs and did not have much of a memory of the crime.

"He acknowledged in the letter that he was taking the easy way out and that it was selfish on his part."

Days earlier, Rejda told Circuit Judge Michael Burke he wanted to plead guilty to the murder and be given a death sentence. Burke ordered a mental examination.

Beside the slaying, Rejda was charged with raping an Aurora woman 15 months earlier. She survived. Birkett said Rejda did not admit the rape in the suicide notes.

His suicide marked the third time in recent months in which a DuPage County inmate facing murder charges tried to take his life.

In March, 24-year-old Jae Harrell of Willowbrook killed himself in his cell. He was accused of fatally beating his mother with a hammer, then leaving her body in her abandoned car along the Eisenhower Expressway.

In June 2006, Neil J. Lofquist survived after he climbed a weight machine and intentionally plunged headfirst onto the jail's hard floor. Lofquist is accused of killing his 8-year-old daughter, Lauren, in March 2006.

Birkett said Rejda's suicide denies the anguished Kiefer family the opportunity to hear him say "I'm guilty," and be punished, in court.

Janice Kiefer discovered her daughter's body in their home after returning from a family holiday gathering about 7:15 p.m. Dec. 25, 2006. Both of them attended the party, but they left separately.

Authorities accused Rejda of breaking in through a window and then, after Lauren interrupted the burglary, fatally beating her with a baseball bat. Authorities said he was linked through DNA evidence, phone records and incriminating statements.

In the Aurora rape, a woman reported she was attacked Oct. 9, 2005, while getting out of her car in the garage. She could not identify her rapist, who covered her face with a pillow. Prosecutors said Rejda was linked to that crime, too, through DNA and a fingerprint.