Kevin says Swearengen's tone changed abruptly. If you say it was an accident, it's involuntary manslaughter with a three to five year sentence. Three-year-old Riley Fox of Wilmington, Illinois, was kidnapped from her home early in the morning on June 6, 2004, as her brother and father slept nearby. Court Upholds Finding that Police Framed Kevin Fox; Jury Awards Kevin Fox, Wife $15.5 Mil; Will Taping Interrogations Fix the System? ", Kevin says that Swearengen suggested the same "accident" scenario that he had proposed to Melissa nearly nine hours earlier. When Zellner told Chad, the older brother laid his head down on a table and wept. Location of This Business. An autopsy would later reveal that the girl had been sexually abused and probably died from drowning. Not even close. Harder still was the family portrait with Riley in her princess dress and white satin slippers. Even though the court paid Kevin and his wife $15.5 million (later reduced to $8.5 million) as compensation for the ordeal, Kevin said he could never recover his reputation in the town. . With a huge smile on her face, she headed straight to her daddy, who scooped her up into his arms. You don't need your father.'". After Champagne and pizza at Zellner's office, Kevin, Melissa, and Tyler spent the evening at Chad and Stacy's apartment in Chicago, safely away from the media. The order, it would later be revealed, had come from detective Ed Hayes. He grabbed the back of Kevin's shirt and pulled his face close. Phone: (910) 343-3900. . Melissa first saw Kevin at a high-school volleyball game. They agreed to tell their story to Chicago, they say, in hopes of calling attention to the injustices they believe they have suffered and to breathe new life into an investigation that, even authorities admit, has not yielded any promising leads for months. But the sense of betrayal he felt at the hands of the detectives, especially when he learned that he would not, indeed, be "bonded out" to go home and straighten things out, was crushing. As they had wanted to do all along, the family began to offer a reward, for $20,000. ", Kevin began to pound the walls. Did he know his car had been spotted passing the Mobil station at four in the morning? With the case against Kevin collapsing, the new Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow held an immediate court hearing. Kevin Fox and his then-wife Melissa's daughter Riley went missing June 6, 2004. Within minutes, Melissa and a friend were barreling down Interstate 55. "Spend it with my wife and son," he said, something he had dreamed about "every day, every single day" since the ordeal had begun. He shakes his head one final time. 701 Market St, Wilmington, NC 28401-4646. Her husband, Kevin, stayed home with her son, Tyler and her three-year-old daughter, Riley. There he saw three pairs of feet poking out of the bottom of the bedcovers. The couple had gone gambling in Las Vegas. Next. Weather forecast Wilmington, North Carolina . For the briefest of moments, "they were making me question myself. As often as not, the town's dozen full-time police officers are looked on less as faceless authorities than as neighbors and friends and former high-school classmates. In less than an hour, it seemed the whole town had turned out. Not fair! In his 2007 budget, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich included a similar initiative that would add eight forensic scientists to the state's crime labs. Melissa got the word when she called Kevin to arrange to meet the family at the finish line. 77/48F. Glasgow was trim with a blow-dried pompadour of silver. But he agreed with Zellner. By the time the state's attorney had finished, Kevin's shoulders were shaking. Seventeen years after the murder and abduction of three-year-old Riley Fox from Wilmington, Illinois, a new two-hour "20/20," featuring reporting by Anchor David Muir, has newly obtained recordings and documents that reveal shocking new details about the case.The two-hour program reports on how the mystery unraveled, including how authorities mistakenly zeroed in on Riley's father, Kevin . "My niece was kidnapped and murdered from her own home," he said, "-no answers from the cops for months, a deliberate railroading of my brother, my family nearly falls apart because of the sadness and stress, the terrible perception by the public of us defending Kevin. Though the police denied using force, Kevins attorney had the DNA from the crime scene tested against Kevins own DNA. While Chad talked about leaving for the big city, Kevin couldn't imagine living anywhere else. Gone were any underwear and capri pants. He knew he was innocent, he says. What about DNA testing? "I felt like I had nothing to hide," he says, and he worried that hiring an attorney might make him look guilty. ", The couple, however, have moved out of Wilmington. How could a lightweight bathroom door knock a little girl out so completely that she appeared dead? "Say it was an accident. The extended Fox family danced the night away, though before too long Riley and Tyler had curled up under a table and fallen sound asleep. When the FBI began its investigation in 2009, it was two years after a jury awarded Fox and his then-wife, Melissa Fox, $15.5 million for the Will County Sheriff's Office investigators' false. "I tagged around when we were in high school. Kevin was shocked beyond words when the police recovered Rileys body but tried his best to assist in the investigation. One detective, Scott Swearengen, played toss with Tyler and often dropped by for coffee at Curt and Dawn's house, where Kevin and Melissa had moved after Riley's murder. "Something didn't feel right," Chad recalls. "I hated leaving him there," Chad says. A Chicago news show had even aired a resident of Wilmington relating the town gossip. Five months after three-year-old Riley Fox of Wilmington was brutally murdered, her father, Kevin, confessed following a long night with Will County detectives. The girl appeared "lifeless," and Kevin thought she was dead. The ruling elite is now past retardation for many centuries. The media played a role in this suspicion. Melissa begged her husband, "Please hold me, hold me.". A videotape captured the session, conducted by a forensic interviewer named Mary Jane Pluth, who works for the Will County Children's Advocacy Center. The boy shakes his head. He looks away. The weeks dragged by. Melissa Mack (right) with her husband Ryan and newborn baby Jett Myers "Riley is in the room with you right now," the lawsuit quotes Guilfoyle as saying. Five months later, a gallery of stunned observers packed the hearing at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet. They first tested where Kevin said he had left the body-according to his confession, he had placed it in the water at the base of the Kahler Bridge, slipping once as he made his way down the muddy embankment. Its 4.2 square miles occupy a rural stretch of old Route 66 (now Route 53) and offer the picture-perfect icons of Midwestern America. He was cordial, they recall, but he also insisted that the two be separated. None was available. Some expressed bitter feelings of betrayal to reporters. I told him, Don't you talk like that about my husband and family.'" The Las Vegas trip was to attend a friend's wedding and had been planned and paid for months before Riley's death. According to the summary, Kevin thought of driving to his mother-in-law's house, or perhaps taking Riley to the hospital. 66F. Kevin told police that Riley was wearing a white T-shirt with a pink flamingo on it and pink capri pants. "No." "The state's attorney's office at that point needs to get involved and say, Wait a minute. Tall and striking, with dark brown shoulder-length hair, Zellner has made a name for herself by winning wrongful conviction cases. She had traded in the Ford Escape for a new car. (Lyons did not return calls seeking comment.). The family sued the state and won $15 million, which later was reduced to $8.5 million. As far as Glasgow knew, the little girl's rape kits had not contained sufficient genetic material to yield a usable profile. "You guys are nuts!". Chad hugged Kevin as the room burst into applause. But we feel closer to her when we go there. On this day, however, the mood was festive. Tyler shakes his head "no" several times. "There are some red flags that are making us look at Kevin," Melissa recalls the detective saying. For the first time publicly, Kevin and his wife, Melissa, talk about their ordeal, an account of pain, mystery, and undying faith, wrapped around an enduring tragedy Five months after. Kevin, after all, had been the last person known to have seen Riley alive. I looked at him square in the eyes the whole time, and I knew my brother was not lying to me. Advertisement Read more on Chicago Sun-Times A search for the young girl began. On October 11th, a report by Amy Jacobson, the tall blond reporter from Chicago's NBC 5, gave voice to the whispers. A little before eight in the morning, however, Tyler came into Kevin's room. In the weeks that followed, Melissa and Kevin found the investigators to be supportive, even friendly. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. 79/63F. After returning home with his children at around 1 am, Kevin put his kids in the living room and went to bed at 2:30 am. The defendants have sought to have the claim dismissed, arguing among other things that prosecutors are immune from such claims. Around 2:15, he went to the bathroom and swung the door open quickly, striking Riley and knocking her down. According to the sheriff's summary, this is what he said: He came home at about 1:30 a.m., ate a snack, and then watched television, including an adult video. "Are you kidding me?" Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. 2 bds; 1 ba; 1,000 sqft - Active. That night, Kevin drove to Chicago, too, to attend a concert with a friend and one of Melissa's brothers. "They'd come back with their legs scratched up and bleeding," recalls Kevin. "I finally kicked the door really hard," she says. Yet, despite the overwhelming implication of guilt produced by the hearing, a number of troubling questions lurked within the prosecutor's case. They tricked me.' He admitted placing his finger in the vagina of the child. 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