'Brutal execution' alleged, but judge to decide Palatine case

On the phone with a 911 operator the morning of Aug. 12, 2005, a frantic Diana Thames tells authorities her friend is hurt -- "real bad" -- and bleeding from the chest.

"I need an ambulance," she manages, and then: "There was a man here," explaining that she'd been asleep in her friend's Palatine condo when she heard the doorbell ring, heard a male voice and, later, awoke as the front door shut to find Cindy Wolosick viciously stabbed in her bed.

Prosecutors, though, allege it was Thames who'd held the knife -- plunging it repeatedly into her best friend's body with such force that the tip was embedded in Wolosick's skull and snapped off.

In all, Wolosick suffered 62 stab wounds.

The slaying was a "brutal execution," assistant state's attorney Mike Andre said Monday morning, in the opening minutes of Thames' murder trial. Wolosick, he said, was "filleted like a piece of meat by this butcher."

Thames' lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, argued Thames -- who she says has had carpal tunnel surgery on both wrists -- wouldn't be able to pull off the grisly murder, and certainly wouldn't stick around to call police.

The killing was fueled by rage and animosity, Zellner said, and "there were (other) people in Cindy's life she had volatile relationships with."

The fate of Thames, 50, will be decided in a bench trial before Cook County Judge John Scotillo, meaning he alone will hear evidence and determine the final verdict.

Wolosick, 46, was a speech and language pathologist at Palatine's Lake Louise school, but she also co-owned a home rehab and resale business with Thames in Thames' hometown of Bloomington.

The two had been friends for more than two decades.

Prosecutors say the duo, who had just come back from a Mexico vacation with other friends, had argued over financial issues relating to their business before Thames, who spent the night at Wolosick's condo, killed her in her bed.

The confrontation, Andre said, dealt with an investor who'd been trying to remove a portion of his investment from the company but had not gotten his money back.

"(But) the idea that there's a financial motive in this case is wildly untrue," Zellner said.

Thames eventually confessed to the crime, and that was caught on tape -- one of the first tests of a state law requiring such documentation in murder cases. But Scotillo in August ruled that many of those statements to police couldn't be played at her trial.

In response to Zellner's arguments that Thames had been denied an attorney and intimidated into confessing, he barred anything Thames said after requesting a lawyer.

Prosecutors have argued Thames voluntarily waived her right to an attorney and talked freely to the police.

An earlier 45 minutes of the taped interview were played in court Monday, revealing Thames' first version of her final night with her friend.

She tells police the two had eaten Taco Bell takeout, then watched TV and talked before heading to bed around 1 a.m.

At some point afterward, she says, she was awakened by the door buzzer ringing. She said she heard Wolosick open the door, and heard a man's voice afterward.

She didn't get out of bed to see who the man was, she told police, and she didn't hear the conversation. When she awoke later, she says she heard a motorcycle leaving. She never looked out the window to see who it was, she said, but "I wish I had."

Thames, becoming emotional, then tells police she found Wolosick lying on her bed -- and says she climbed up with her when her friend began calling her name.

She later grabbed a towel from the bathroom, she says, to try to clean up Wolosick.

In the courtroom Monday, Thames wiped away tears as she listened to the tape.

Also in the tape, she says wounds on her hands came from things that happened on vacation and from when Wolosick reached out to her while they were on the bed.

When asked about a missing acrylic nail -- one was found at the scene -- she says it must have fallen off while she was with Wolosick.

The confession portion of the tape won't be played, but Andre told Scotillo on Monday that prosecutors will offer "piece after piece after piece of circumstantial evidence,"

And "it points in one direction only," he told Scotillo. "It points to Diana Thames."

Other witnesses called on Monday included authorities who responded to the murder scene. A paramedic testified Wolosick's body was cool to the touch; he also said blood on her arms appeared to be dry.

The murder trial is scheduled to resume again at 11 a.m. in Room 110 of the Rolling Meadows courthouse.