After 30 Years of searching, murderer has been found

Michael+R+Jones%2C+62%2C+has+been+charged+with+the+murder+of+Kristina+Wesselman%2C+who+was+killed+in+1985.+

Photo courtesy of Dupage County Sheriff

Michael R Jones, 62, has been charged with the murder of Kristina Wesselman, who was killed in 1985.

It has been 30 years since Kristina Wesselman was murdered on a path while walking home from buying a candy bar and drink at a nearby grocery store in Glen Ellyn.  Now, her story has an ending since an arrest was recently made for her murder.  

“It has been more than 30 years, since the horrific murder of Kristina Wesselman” Robert Berlin, the Dupage County’s State Attorney said at a press conference. “With the arrest of this defendant, however, the family of Kristy Wesselman and the people of DuPage County, are one step closer to obtaining the full measure of justice they so richly deserve.”

Wesselman was killed July 21, 1985. She was last seen walking home in Glen Ellyn along a supposedly safe path from a Jewel-Osco. Wesselman was a popular, athletic Glenbard South High School student who was president of her freshman class. “I was pretty good friends with Kristy” Sherry Dial, a former Glenbard South High School student said. “She had been a teammate of mine on several teams we played on in both junior high and high school.  We saw each other often in junior high and hung out at friends’ houses together.” Kristy was found the following day in a forested area behind the Jewel. She was reportedly sexually assaulted and stabbed to death.

“Over the last 30 years the sheriff’s cold case unit has worked hundreds of leads that have sent them across the nation, and thousands of man hours have been spent to catch the killer in this horrendous crime,” Sheriff John Zaruba said in a statement on Sept. 20.      

In Geneva, fortunately the community has never had to deal with a such a tragedy. The people living in the Glenbard South area  have had to deal with the fact there could be a killer among them. “No one thought it was someone from the outside” Kath Bergin said, a retired teacher from Glenbard West, a near by school, who lived close to Kristina. “We didn’t believe it was some outside monster. Because of where it was, the first reaction was that it was one of our own.”

While this case finally looks like it is coming to an end thanks to DNA, it didn’t always appear that way. Many people have been questioned and interrogated, like Dana Henry.  In 1988 he was forced to give a DNA sample in the case.  Henry eventually sued the department because he believed that the DuPage County law enforcement had violated his rights. He was never involved in the case again.  “There were one or two or more people who were accused and lived under suspicion,” said Kath Bergin. “That kid [Dana Henry] who was just a little different was now all of the sudden looked at. That was the community falling in on one another.”

Another man, Willis Wilson was issued a restraining order in 1989 because of his aggressive pursuit of the Wesselman family by giving them incorrect tips. The police often investigated his claims, but they were unfounded.
Now that there has been an arrest for this horrific crime, many families can rest easy knowing that their community is a little safer than it has been for 30 years.  “I feel that justice will be served after years of effort to find him” said Sherry Dial. As Kath Bergin noted, “ I personally know people who have never returned to the area of the attack in all these years.  They’ve never stepped inside the Wal-mart, which is now standing where the Jewel used to be.”

Hopefully, the Glen Ellyn neighborhoods affected by this tragedy can now live their lives without fear that evil is lurking outside their doors.