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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2013
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Bears will get 28th HOFer soon, not today
A stroll through nation’s historical bowling alleys
UNSOLVED & UNFINISHED
Cold cases still haunt detectives
Seat belt ticket gets personal Alleged violator crusades against Prairie Grove officer By SARAH SUTSCHEK ssutschek@shawmedia.com PRAIRIE GROVE – When Prairie Grove police Officer James Page wrote a seat-belt ticket on Oct. 21, he didn’t know he was about to end up the subject of an Iowa attorney’s online war against him. Eric D. Puryear, 28, who has a Davenport, Iowa, law office but is licensed to practice in Illinois, has offered to handle cases involving Page for free and began posting online about Page and the $55 citation. Page said he feels harassed. Puryear also filed a civil lawsuit against the village, alleging that officials failed to properly respond to his Freedom of Information Act requests. He is seeking between $5,000 and $10,000. In October, Puryear, his wife and daughter traveled to McHenry for a birthday party and to spend time with his wife’s family, he said.
By CHELSEA McDOUGALL cmcdougall@shawmedia.com
T
hey’re the cases that keep investigators awake at night. The haunting files that detectives just can’t get out of their heads. Cases that have grown cold – unsolved and unfinished. “I’ve lost a lot of sleep over these,” McHenry County Undersheriff Andrew Zinke said. “Every police officer does – especially detectives. These cases go home with you at night.” The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office has eight open and unsolved homicide cases in its office, Zinke said. Detectives take fresh eyes to the files as time permits.
But as the weeks, months and sometimes years accumulate and leads grow more stale, with no new evidence or witnesses, it makes it harder and more frustrating for detectives to solve these crimes. “The faster you can get [to a crime scene], the faster you can get fresh evidence, fresh witness statements,” Zinke said.
Ill. takes leading role in gun debate By DON BABWIN The Associated Press Northwest Herald file photos
TOP: Hampshire Police Chief Thomas Atchison stands June 4, 2000, at the grave of his friend, Greg Sears. ABOVE: Woodstock Auxilliary Police Ofiicer Chris McCombs stands outside the Greenwood condominium where Pamela Carr was found slain Sept. 17, 1996.
“Those are all critical in making that case.” In these cases, the critical first hours of investigation lapsed long ago. Technological advances in evidence gathering has changed, too, making the older crimes even harder to solve. “Go back 20 years, and basically it was fingerprints and fibers,” Zinke said of clue-collection
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I’ve lost a lot of sleep over these. ... These cases go home with you at night. – Andrew Zinke, McHenry County undersheriff
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WoodsTock
A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE Woodstock’s Challenger Learning Center for Science and Technology paid tribute to fallen astronauts Friday on NASA’s Day of Remembrance. It hosted about 50 fifth-graders for a candlelight vigil, followed by the release of 17 balloons. for
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Eric D. Puryear, 28, was in the passenger seat of his brother-inlaw’s pickup truck as they drove down Route 176 when Prairie Grove police officer James Page pulled them over. He gave Puryear a ticket for not wearing a seat belt. Puryear says he was.
See SEAT BELT, page A4
See COLD CASES, page A4
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CHICAGO – They are counting the dead from gunfire again in Chicago, a city awash in weapons despite having one of the strictest gun-control ordinances in the nation. After a year in which Chicago’s death toll surpassed 500, the bloodshed has continued in 2013 at a rate of more than one killing a day. It was the city’s deadliest January in more than a decade. Now with this week’s death of a 15-year-old drum majorette who had just returned from performing at President
See GUNS, page A3
Gun control Critics of gun control say Chicago’s spike in homicides offers clear evidence that sharply restricting weapons endangers the public. The city banned handguns until a 2010 Supreme Court ruling threw out the ban.