Slain Glen Ellyn woman's father tells what he told her daughter
Just days after learning his daughter Nancy was the victim of an apparent homicide in her Glen Ellyn apartment, Richard Bustos now faces the difficult task of explaining it to his 9-year-old granddaughter.
“‘I need my mother. My mother is dead,' she says. I say, ‘Baby, Jesus took her. She's in a beautiful place,'” Bustos said.
On Sunday morning, just as Bustos and his wife, also named Nancy, were going to church, something told her to go to their daughter's apartment, he said. The Hanover Park family hadn't heard from their daughter since Friday.
After knocking on her door with no answer — and seeing Nancy's car in the parking lot — the family became worried.
“I told my son, ‘Call the police,'” Bustos said Tuesday.
Authorities discovered the body of 36-year-old Nancy Bustos in the bathtub, with some reports indicating she was strangled.
Richard Bustos said he waited with his wife and son outside the Glen Ellyn apartment, only to be greeted with bad news from a detective.
“I said, ‘Hey, my daughter is inside, right?' The cop put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘I'm sorry, my friend, your daughter passed away.'”
Police continue to investigate how Nancy Bustos died, and her ex-husband, Juan M. Granados, has been named a person of interest. Authorities believe he may have fled to Mexico, where he has another home, according to Richard Bustos.
Granados had been living with his ex-wife, their daughter and 4-year-old son in Glen Ellyn, but he moved out four weeks ago, Richard Bustos said.
“She said, ‘We're finished. No more,'” Bustos said.
He said his daughter told him she was going to get an order of protection against Granados — but she never did.
She previously was granted such an order in 2004, and the couple divorced in 2010, according to court records.
Nancy Bustos was a “happy, nice person” who was finishing her certification in social work at Elgin Community College, her father said.
Meanwhile, police tape had been removed from outside her Glen Ellyn apartment Tuesday and a small memorial was started with a bouquet of flowers and a candle.
Officials from the Glen Ellyn Police Department and DuPage County Major Crimes Task Force continued to investigate but released no further information Tuesday.
Glen Ellyn Village President Mark Pfefferman issued a statement saying authorities believe the slaying was isolated and “there is no cause for alarm in our community.”
The last homicide in the village was in 2003.