Guilty verdict in McHenry murder and entombment case
A jury deliberated nearly three hours Friday before convicting a McHenry man of killing his girlfriend and entombing her body in his home for more than a year.
William J. Ross, 64, testified during the four-day trial that he did not kill Jacqueline Schaefer, 49, whose skeletal remains were found in November 2013 in a sealed bedroom in his home near the Fox River.
McHenry County prosecutors, in their closing arguments Friday morning, said Ross was the only person who could have killed Schaefer, abusing her during their relationship and buying duct tape, caulk, paint, drywall screws and wood molding to seal the door in a bedroom where her body was found.
"He put a bullet in her spine. He finished her off with a bullet in the head and he kept her in his house," Assistant State's Attorney Dave Johnston told jurors. "There is no blood in the house because he stayed there for five months before he sealed it up and left town. It's his house. It's his room. It's nobody else but him."
Ross showed no visible reaction when the verdict was returned.
Relatives of Schaefer hugged and cried.
"I'm not surprised (at the quick verdict)," Schaefer's father, John, said afterward. "We're glad he's convicted."
John Schaefer said he didn't know Ross until the trial and didn't have much contact with his daughter.
"She wanted to live her way and we lived our way," he said.
Prosecutors argued Ross killed Schaefer sometime in fall 2011; her journal's last entry was Sept. 29 and the last check she wrote was Sept. 28. The room where her remains were found still had makeup, clothes and other personal effects.
Prosecutors said Ross let maggots and beetles strip away the flesh on her decaying body until around June 2012, when he made five trips to the hardware store for supplies to seal the door. Then Ross left town, having his ex-girlfriend take care of the outside of the home and ordering her never to go inside.
After Schaefer's remains were found, Ross was arrested in Las Vegas and told investigators she moved to Missouri while he was away on business in 2011.
Defense attorney Stephen Richards suggested Ross' ex-girlfriend, Renee Bitton, played a role in Schaefer's death. After a water pipe burst and caused part of the ceiling to cave in, Bitton and her boyfriend went inside. Finally, after several months, Bitton entered the forbidden room to get a space heater and found the remains stuffed in two black garbage bags.
Richards questioned why Bitton burned Ross' master bedroom mattress, which had a large brown stain on it, outside and didn't mention that to investigators.
"She burned the mattress to hide something and didn't tell the police about it because it was evidence she was doing something wrong," Richards said.
Assistant State's Attorney Michael Combs pointed to Ross' evasive answers to police and it was "preposterous" Schaefer could have been murdered by a biker gang or someone else, as Ross suggested to authorities. Ross also was convicted of battering Schaefer in the past.
"You don't seal up that door like a tomb if you didn't put the body there," Combs told jurors. "This guy is a lying liar. If his lips are moving, he's lying. This is about justice for Jackie. She had no voice because (Ross) took it. This was a cold, callous crime. She did not deserve to die."
Ross faces between 20 and 60 years in prison with no chance of early release when sentenced Sept. 15 by Judge Sharon Prather.