Tireless work on murder case earns McHenry deputy honor as state's top cop
At first, McHenry County sheriff's Sgt. Trent Raupp assumed it was a joke.
After all, it was April 1 when he heard that he'd been chosen as the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police's Most Outstanding Law Enforcement Officer of the Year - a prestigious honor Raupp didn't know he'd been nominated for, much less believed he could win.
"I thought it might have been our sheriff's April Fools' Day prank and it took some time before it set in and it actually became real," said Raupp, a detective and 15-year veteran of the sheriff's office.
"I'm humbled, and I'm truly honored," he added. "There are thousands of police officers in the state of Illinois that do outstanding work every single day. So, for me to be recognized like this, I'm just awestruck."
Raupp earned the award in part because of his dogged, monthslong pursuit of a case that started with a missing-person report and ended with a murder suspect behind bars.
In January 2021, the mother of Michelle M. Arnold-Boesiger, 33, reported her missing to police in Holiday Hills, a tiny village wedged between Island Lake and McHenry in eastern McHenry County. By then, Arnold-Boesiger hadn't been seen in nearly two months, after moving to Wisconsin with her boyfriend.
The case made its way to Raupp's desk at the sheriff's office, and he spent the next several weeks analyzing social media accounts, financial records, cellphone data, videos from the Illinois tollway and other information in search of the missing woman. Despite plenty of road blocks and dead ends, Raupp didn't give up.
"You keep uncovering little truths as you keep on digging," he said. "And, as we as we kept on uncovering those little truths, it's like peeling back an onion. We just kept on finding more and more layers."
Eventually, all that peeling led to a U-Haul storage unit in Roscoe, just south of the Wisconsin border. There, on March 2, 2021, police found Arnold-Boesiger's body in an SUV registered to her boyfriend, Jonathan Van Duyn. The 34-year-old former Marengo man now is awaiting trial in Winnebago County for first-degree murder.
Raupp will receive his award tonight at the ILACP's annual Awards Banquet in Northbrook. He'll be joined by his wife as well as his partner, Detective Mike Quick.
"I can't be thankful enough to the people that helped make it happen, because, although I'm the one getting named, it was truly a collaborative effort on this case," Raupp said.
More awards
Raupp isn't the only suburban official to win kudos from the state chiefs association this spring. Last month, the ILACP named state Rep. Dan Ugaste of Geneva and Kane County State's Attorney Jamie Mosser two of its Public Officials of the Year.
Ugaste, a second-term Republican, was chosen for his work to raise the concerns of law enforcement in the state House and for being a persistent opponent of efforts to diminish or remove qualified and tort immunity from law enforcement officers, according to the ILACP.
Mosser, a Democrat serving her first term, was chosen for helping police chiefs during negotiations of all the major criminal justice laws in the past two years.
"Then we provided training to hundreds of chiefs and their departments to help them understand and implement the laws, and Jamie took a leading role in preparing the materials for the training and then being one of our primary trainers," ILACP Executive Director Ed Wojcicki said.
"Our association's leaders were so grateful that she devoted that much time and expertise on our behalf; the law is now much improved because of her insights and collaborative style."
120 years sought
In the meantime, Mosser's office will seek a sentence of up to 120 years in prison - or possibly even life - for Carlos Fonseca-Gutierrez, if the Aurora Township resident is found guilty of murdering a man on Halloween 2020.
Fonseca-Gutierrez is charged in the death of Mario Ying, a 51-year-old Elgin man stabbed in an Aurora-area home he was renovating. The home is just a couple of blocks from Fonseca-Gutierrez's residence east of Aurora and owned by the same person.
Although first-degree murder normally carries a 20- to 60-year sentence, prosecutors filed a notice last week with Judge John Barsanti that they'd be seeking an extended term. To get it, they will not only have to prove Fonseca-Gutierrez is guilty, but also that his actions were "exceptionally brutal and heinous."
Eyes on the road
Of the 310 expressway shootings recorded by state police last year, nearly a third occurred during June, July and August.
With that in mind, state police announced Wednesday they're teaming with the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Chicago Department of Transportation to install 56 automated license plate readers on I-90, I-290, I-55, and I-57 by mid-May. They join 99 readers already in place on the Dan Ryan.
"The automated license plate reader is another tool to assist ISP patrol and investigations solve crimes and make Chicago-area expressways safer for motorists," state police Director Brenden F. Kelly said. "Since their installation, automated license plate readers have been instrumental in ISP investigations and arrests in Cook County. By expanding their use to all Chicagoland expressways, ISP will be able to catch more criminals and make our interstates safer."
Eventually, state police hope to have 300 readers installed by the end of June.
As of April 20, 51 shootings on Cook County-area expressways have been reported, with 26 causing injuries but no fatalities. During the same period in 2021, there were 66 expressway shootings, with 28 resulting in injuries and seven fatalities.
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