← Somebody Knows Something
Somebody Knows Something
S3E4: Joliet
00:30:28
Detectives leave Elgin and head southwest to Joliet, Illinois — chasing one of their strongest theories in the search for missing woman Wyteria Jones. Could she have quietly slipped away to another city in 1982? The detectives trace every route she...
Loading summary
Transcript82 lines
- [00:01]
Detective Andrew Houghton
I'm here with spinquest where you can play and win from the comfort of your own home with hundreds of slot games and all of the table games
- [00:08]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
you love with real cash prizes.
- [00:12]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Right now, $30 coin packs are on sale for $10. For new users, it's all@spinquest.com that's s
- [00:20]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
p I n q U-E-T.com SpinQuest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. This podcast is based on information sourced primarily from police and media reports, but certain names and other identifying details may have been changed or altered for privacy and security reasons. While the events and cases discussed are based on real investigations, some aspects may be simplified for time and and for narrative purposes. Voice actors have been used to read from statements or documents. All information presented is intended solely to inform and raise awareness. Hosts may discuss theories regarding the cases examined in this podcast, but such discussions are not intended to and should not be considered by the listener to to be legal. Conclusions all persons discussed are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Listener discretion is advised.
- [01:33]
Chief Anna Lally
This is Chief Anna Lally. Welcome to Somebody Knows Something, a podcast from the Elgin Police Department's Cold Case Unit. In this podcast, we will shed new light on cold cases in the city of Elgin by sharing untold details and by encouraging anyone with information to come forward. You will come along with real cold case detectives as they investigate active cold cases in real time and seek justice for the victims and closure for their families. We believe that the Elgin Police Department and our community can work together to bring closure to cold cases because we know that in these cases, somebody knows something.
- [02:17]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Hello and welcome to Somebody Knows Something, the Elgin Police Department Cold Case Podcast. My name is Detective Andrew Houghton and
- [02:24]
Detective Chris Hall
I'm Detective Chris Hall. Last episode we visited sites related to Wyteria's time here in Elgin and we discussed our first two theories for her case. For this episode, we are hitting the road and traveling to Joliet, Illinois to search for more answers and in Wyteria's case, as we consider our theory that Wyteria left Elgin and traveled to Joliet.
- [02:55]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Before we head to Joliet, let's talk a little bit about the city and its history for people who are not from Illinois or maybe not familiar with it. Joliet is located in Will County, Illinois, approximately 40 miles southwest of Chicago and just a little over 50 miles from Elgin. Joliet was founded in 1831, four years before Elgin and in the years after the Black Hawk War. Settlers Flocked to the area because it became known as fertile soil and had access to the Des plaines River. By 1851, the City of Joliet was incorporated and had a population of just under 2,700 people.
- [03:27]
Detective Chris Hall
The Joliet of today boasts a population of over 150,000 people, making it the third largest city in Illinois, behind Chicago and Aurora. But even in the early 1980s, Joliet was already growing. It had become a moderately sized city with a population of around 78,000 people in the early 1980s, almost identical to Elgin's population. Joliet at that time was the eighth largest city in Illinois, and Elgin was the ninth. So when Wyteria went missing, she was potentially leaving behind a blue collar industrial hub for another. And because both were large urban centers, There were at least two major ways to travel to them.
- [04:06]
Detective Andrew Houghton
The first mode of transportation from Elgin to Joliet was by the highway. Joliet is situated along historic Route 66, which was established on November 11, 1926 and ran nearly 2,500 miles across eight states from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California. The highway was paved in 1938 and connected hundreds of small rural communities to larger urban centers, including Joliet. Since Wyteria didn't have a car, and we know that she was allegedly spotted at a bus stop somewhere downtown, a stop that we think we've identified on Grove Street. A bus seems like the most logical option for her to use the highway system. But it is possible she could have gotten a ride from someone else or found another way to travel again. That's why we need more information about her social circles here in Elgin.
- [04:57]
Detective Chris Hall
Taking that into consideration, we did some research into bus lines from the 1970s and 1980s, and there were two main companies that operated intercity and interstate buses in Illinois. The first company was Greyhound, which most people are probably pretty familiar with. And the second was Trailways. According to the New York Times, by 1983, Greyhound operated nearly 4,000 buses in the United States and carried approximately 60% of all inner city bus traffic. Trailways also operated buses, but most people today probably have never heard of them. In fact, Trailways disappeared in 1987 when Greyhound bought the company and started and fully absorbed it.
- [05:35]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Chris, Beth and I did a lot of digging and located some maps that depict routes for both companies from the late 1970s and into the early 1980s. As far as we can tell, at least at this point, we have not found any direct Greyhound or Trailway buses from Elgin directly to Joliet or Elgin directly to Aurora, which kind of makes sense. Chicago's close enough that it's a major hub. Based on the maps we did locate, Wyteria could have taken a Greyhound bus from Elgin to Chicago. Then from Chicago, she could basically get anywhere in the country. There were Trailway buses that ran from Chicago to both Aurora, where she had previously lived, and to Joliet, and multiple bus lines of all sorts that come out of Chicago to regional cities or other areas around the country. So if she did take an intercity bus like Trailways or Greyhound, it seems most likely that she would go to Chicago and use that main hub to then get back out to another suburb like Joliet.
- [06:29]
Detective Chris Hall
Additionally, there were commuter trains in the 1980s as well, but Metra as we know it today didn't exist yet. The Regional Transit Authority, or rta, operated area train lines, which later became Metra. And there were no direct train routes from Elgin to Joliet or Aurora. Similar to the Greyhound and Trailways bus routes, Wyteria would have had to take a commuter train to downtown Chicago on the Milwaukee West Line. The train station was just a few blocks from the Douglas Hotel, as we described in our last episode. So it is possible that the witnesses who reportedly saw Whiteeria possibly waiting for a bus could have potentially seen her waiting to walk a little further to that train station.
- [07:07]
Detective Andrew Houghton
If Whiteeria did take a train to Chicago, she would have had a ton of options to get anywhere in Illinois or anywhere in the country, really. If she wanted to go to Aurora, Whiteeria could have taken the Burlington Northern Line train back to Aurora to the west. Or if she planned to go to Joliet, she had two different options, the Illinois Central Gulf Line or the Rock Island Line. The Illinois Central Gulf Line seems more likely because it left from Union Station. The line from Elgin would have terminated there, and she wouldn't have had to walk anywhere else with her bags. So, theoretically, that would make the most sense. However, she could have taken the Rock Island Line, but she would have had to walk to La Salle street in Chicago to get on that train. Either way, to get to either Aurora or Joliet by train, Wyteria would have had to travel from Elgin into Chicago and then back out.
- [07:53]
Detective Chris Hall
Speaking of trains, we should also note that Whiteeria could potentially take an Amtrak from Chicago to a number of other cities in Illinois or across the country, too. We don't have any reason to think she was planning to do that, but it is important to note that if she did go to Chicago, Whiteeria could literally go anywhere in the country. If she had enough money to buy a ticket on either a bus or a train. Overall, Andrew and I have decided that Chicago is another viable option for Whiteeria's travels. And we will certainly discuss Chicago more in future episodes as we consider the options that Wyteria had back in 1982.
- [08:25]
Detective Andrew Houghton
The revelation that there was not a direct Greyhound or Trailways bus or direct train from Elgin to Joliet suggests that Wteria would have had to commute to another city to get there if that was in fact her final destination. So that adds another layer to this case. Witeria certainly could have gone to the City of Chicago in 1982 and had something happened there, which is another theory that we have to consider.
- [08:45]
Detective Chris Hall
We would like to thank Bob Weber from the Pullman Library and Bob Alkire from the Fox River Trolley Museum for helping us get a bunch of maps from the RTA and Metra with these old cases. You have to really think outside of the box to try to track down old records. So Andrew and I reached out to the Illinois Railway Museum, the Fox River Trolley Museum and the Pullman Library to find old train and bus schedules and maps. We certainly appreciate the emails and letters we got back from both of them. The records are really helpful for us to get a better idea of the options that Wyteria had in 1982.
- [09:16]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Bob Weber from the Pullman Museum also gave us another piece of really useful information. In addition to Greyhound and Trailways, the rta, which operated the train lines back then, also operated suburban buses. So Beth, Chris and I decided that we also needed to look at that option as well. In fact, that option might actually make the most sense foreign.
- [09:41]
Detective Chris Hall
Which are now operated by Metra. The RTA bus doesn't exist anymore either. PACE took over bus services in the area in 1984 and still operates in Chicagoland with a large downtown station here in Elgin near the Metro station. So we reached out to Pace and the company provided us with additional maps and schedules from the 1980s. It appears that the bus lines then were similar to the ones now. We would like to thank Maggie Daly for helping us out with the old PACE records. We also know that buses and trains are a pretty large hobby for people. So if anyone is listening that has additional information that might be useful for the bus and train lines, we would really appreciate the assistance. Tracking down the exact locations of bus stops and lines from 40 plus years ago might give us a new trail to follow.
- [10:27]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Based on the records that we've gathered so far, Wyteria certainly could have taken an RTA bus to Chicago, just like the greyhounder train options. The big difference with the RTA bus option is there was a direct route from Elgin to aurora on bus 801. That route picked up in Elgin every 15 to 20 minutes and continued all the way to Aurora, but it didn't go to Joliet.
- [10:46]
Detective Chris Hall
Once we learned that the RTA bus to Aurora could be an option, we wanted to find out if there was an RTA bus that directly connected Aurora to Joliet. Based upon the maps we have so far, we haven't found any direct RTA train or bus route from Aurora to Joliet. So it seems like the best way to get to Joliet would still be to take a bus or train to Chicago and then out to Joliet.
- [11:08]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Yeah, there may have been a way to hop on multiple buses between multiple cities and maneuver her way from Elgin to Joliet via Aurora. But records from RTA maps from the late 70s and early 80s do not include direct lines that connect Aurora with another city. The that also connects to Joliet. Traveling to Chicago remains the easier and quickest hub for that, and she reportedly had belongings with her. Changing multiple buses across multiple cities would not be as likely as just going to Chicago and coming back out on a bus line. And it'd be really difficult to use Aurora as a launchpad to Joliet. Unless she went to Chicago first. We'll talk about Aurora in our next episode. But a big part of this episode was trying to figure out if Wyteria could get to Joliet on an RTI bus or some other way directly from Elgin. Yes.
- [11:48]
Detective Chris Hall
So sticking with Joliet for now, Wyteria could have taken a train to Chicago and then off to Joliet. Or she could have taken either a Greyhound on RTA bus to Chicago and then out to Joliet, or even possibly she could have gone to Aurora on the RTA bus, but then worked her way back across multiple routes and cities to end up in Joliet. But that last option certainly seems the least likely if Wyteria was traveling to Joliet. As a witness told police, she was supposed to be going to the Joliet Motor Lodge, which, as we started this investigation, we then ran into another problem. There is and never has been a hotel called the Joliet Motor Lodge.
- [12:33]
Detective Andrew Houghton
When it comes to these old cases, Chris and I have found that some of our best information comes from local historical societies and museums. So for this case, we contacted the Joliet Area Historical Museum, and we corresponded with their curator there named Steven Wright. We want to thank him for helping us track down a bunch of old records that really did help us on this case.
- [12:50]
Detective Chris Hall
The records we received from Stephen were able to indicate that there was no Joliet Motor Lodge, but there were two potential hotels that had a similar name, One of which was the Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge in Joliet, which was located at I55 and Route 52. And the other was the Joliet Motor Hotel, which was located at 373 Western Avenue. The Howard Johnson Motor Lodge changed hands multiple times over the years and was recently demolished, so it is unfortunately no longer in existence today. But Stephen was able to get us some old phone directories from hotels in the 1980s in Joliet, and those were extremely helpful. The directories provided exact addresses and in some cases, phone numbers, which reminded us that we actually had a phone number listed in the original Elgin police report along with the name Joliet Motor Lodge.
- [13:37]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Chris and I quickly dug out the old report and we compared the phone number to the 1980s phone number for the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge, and they were different. So we began to think that the Joliet Motor Hotel might be the better option for this investigation. Of course, as luck would have it, the old directories didn't even list the Joliet Motor Hotel or a phone number for it. So we were back to square one again. That is, until Steven sent us a newspaper article that he found about the Joliet Motor Hotel that was published in 1984.
- [14:05]
Detective Chris Hall
Stephen came across a news clipping from the October 20, 1984 edition of the Joliet Herald News. The article mentioned that the Joliet Motor Hotel discussed that the property had numerous code violations, and even noted that nearly 100 people occupied the nine story hotel as of 1984. The hotel was also delinquent on water and sewage bills, with the city threatening to cut off the water later that week. The final line of the article held that information that we were looking for. It mentioned that the owners of the Joliet Motor Hotel had previously owned a hotel in Elgin, and it named those Chester and June Zima.
- [14:43]
Detective Andrew Houghton
As soon as Chris and I read the article, we immediately knew we were on the right track with the Joliet Motor Hotel because we recognized that last name, Zima. In fact, as listeners know from our last episode, the hotel that the Zima's owned in Elgin was the Douglas Hotel. So Chris and I both firmly believe that if Wyteria was going to the Joliet Motor Lodge. As she allegedly told another witness, she actually met the Joliet Motor Hotel.
- [15:06]
Detective Chris Hall
That location certainly makes sense. Wyteria was living in a hotel that the Zima's were operating in Elgin, and so it seems likely that she would know that they had another hotel. It also makes sense that the owners would potentially tell residents that they could accept them at that other property once the Douglas Hotel closed. That, along with the fact that an independent witness told police that Wyteria mentioned moving to Joliet, makes at least sense that it's possible she was considering that option.
- [15:33]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Absolutely. It certainly seems most likely that the hotel in Joliet, if she was planning to go there, would have been the Joliet Motor hotel, located at 373 Western Avenue. Because the physical building still exists, we decided that we should check it out in person to see it. Detective Stereker came along with us as we visited the former hotel and called the Joliet Motor Hotel.
- [15:57]
Resident/Local Informant
So this is the hotel?
- [15:59]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
Yep.
- [16:00]
Detective Chris Hall
This is literally triple the size of the Douglas Hotel. That's crazy.
- [16:05]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Still in pretty good shape. So let's head inside and take a look.
- [16:07]
Resident/Local Informant
Sounds good.
- [16:13]
Detective Chris Hall
All right.
- [16:13]
Detective Andrew Houghton
So we went into the hotel, and it turns out it's an apartment. Now, back then, in the 80s, the upper third through ninth floor were kind of apartments, and the first two floors were hotels, right?
- [16:27]
Resident/Local Informant
Correct.
- [16:27]
Detective Chris Hall
Yeah.
- [16:28]
Resident/Local Informant
The lady that worked at the desk said that the current owners bought it in 1995 from the Zima family who had owned the Douglas Hotel in Elgin.
- [16:43]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Yeah, we were able to meet with an actual resident who lived here since about 1977. And so he did not remember why Teriye looked at some photos of her, but he did know the family owned a different hotel in Elgin. And he actually told us something kind of interesting, right, Chris?
- [17:01]
Detective Chris Hall
Yeah. He told us that he, along with several other residents, eventually got on a, I believe, a Greyhound bus and went all the way down to Texas to relocate to another location down there.
- [17:15]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Yeah, because the Zima family owned a hotel down there, apparently. Unfortunately, he did not recall Wighteria being one of the people that went with him. But it sounds like when this hotel was either closing or there were some issues here, the owners put several of the tenants on a bus and took them to another hotel. So now we have to kind of consider that as an option for Elgin. You know, maybe they put people on a bus there and just brought them over here to. To the Douglas from the Douglas.
- [17:41]
Resident/Local Informant
Or they could have. I mean, if they had a place in Texas this whole time, that's Obviously an option, too. Maybe some people went down there from elgen. Maybe they didn't come here first, too.
- [17:49]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Yeah, for sure.
- [17:50]
Detective Chris Hall
Just opens up another. Another potential entire location to look at.
- [17:55]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Yeah. So now we have to consider Texas as an option. Yep.
- [18:00]
Resident/Local Informant
And I'm hoping maybe. I know these. The people we talked to who work here now. Said that they are part of the historical society and joliet. And that they are interested in the history. So maybe if they.
- [18:15]
Detective Chris Hall
They were incredibly helpful.
- [18:16]
Resident/Local Informant
Yeah. And maybe if they come across something or if they, you know.
- [18:19]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Yeah. Some records.
- [18:20]
Resident/Local Informant
Some records they can. They'll call us and let us know. Or they come across somebody else who might have some more knowledge or lived here back then. I know the resident who lived here. Has been here since he was 18. And he's what he said he's going to be. Yeah, he said 60s. 60s.
- [18:38]
Detective Chris Hall
Yeah.
- [18:38]
Detective Andrew Houghton
He said that the. When it was a hotel on the bottom floor Is like the long term extended stay. It was single person room. So you didn't have roommates. The apartments upstairs would have been a little bit more. So we would maybe assume that if whiteeria did come here, that she would have her own room. It's a cheaper option for her. The only records they could find were some pay books from the 1980s. It was 1989. It looks like it was about 85 bucks to stay here for the month. For the month. But this resident said that he would get his checks from the state for his Social Security, and that's how he would pay for his stay. So it sounds like that's pretty similar. What was going on in Elton as well. But, yeah, overall, some good new information for us here. Joliet interesting.
- [19:28]
Detective Chris Hall
Similarly to the Douglas hotel, We don't have any records of tenants for the joliet motor hotel. Wiat also is not listed in federal census records. For the joliet motor lodge like she was for the douglas hotel. So we can't confirm if she ever even made it there. The original witness who told police that whiteeria planned to go to joliet. Also said in 1983 that she had called the hotel and that they told her that whiteeria had never been a tenant there. So it's likely that even if records didn't exist. And given her absence in the census records, Whiteeria would not be listed. It seems like even though we've identified the location. That she may have been going to, We've hit another dead end.
- [20:10]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Another thing we did for this episode. Was review numerous missing person cases. From will county, which is Where Joliet is located. Just like Kane county and other areas of Illinois, there are many more people missing than people probably realize.
- [20:23]
Detective Chris Hall
Our goal in reviewing missing persons cases for the area was to look for any missing persons cases involving women in the area from the early 1980s when Wyteria could have been in Will County. So as we have combed through these old cases, we came across a few that we want to briefly touch on. The first case is from Frankfort, Illinois, which is roughly 15 miles east of Joliet. And it involves a 16 year old girl named April Rose Zane. The records for her case are a little spotty, but she disappeared on either easter Sunday of 1976 or 77. Easter Sunday was April 18 in 1976 and April 10 in 1977 because her parents had both died and she had been out past curfew in the past. The exact date fluctuates depending on what research you use, but needless to say, she vanished on Easter of 1976 or 1977.
- [21:13]
Detective Andrew Houghton
According to April's sister, who was approximately six years old when she disappeared, the family took a Lily to April's grandmother's house with the rest of the family for Easter. April reportedly told her little sister, I'll see you later kid. I'll be back. But April never returned.
- [21:27]
Detective Chris Hall
April was between 5ft 4 inches and 5ft 8 inches tall and she weighed approximately 115 pounds. She also had red hair, blue eyes and lots of freckles. April was last seen wearing a brown flannel jacket and a picture of her is included with this episode. April's family has since declared her legally dead and placed a small memorial on her parents grave at Rose Hill Cemetery in Frankfort, Illinois with the simple inscription and using her date of Death as Easter Sunday 1977
- [21:59]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
in memory of April Rose Zane.
- [22:02]
Detective Andrew Houghton
February 25, 1960 to April 10, 1977.
- [22:10]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
Stolen from my life still remains in my heart.
- [22:22]
Detective Andrew Houghton
While we don't believe that April's case is related to Whiteeria's disappearance in 1982, it is another example of just another young girl like Barbara Glueckert who simply vanished into thin air in the 1970s. If you or anyone you know has information about April Roseanne's disappearance, you can contact the Franklin Park Police Department at 815-496-4935 or you can reach out to us and we can put you in contact with them.
- [22:53]
Detective Chris Hall
Another pretty well known area case for Will county is the disappearance of six year old Sarah Elizabeth Avon. Sarah disappeared from her home on Oscar Avenue in Joliet at approximately 9pm on July 21, 1981. She was last seen wearing a Joliet District soccer T shirt, blue jogging pants with red and white stripes and blue tennis shoes with a white stripe. She had blondish brown hair, was approximately 4ft tall and weighed about 50 pounds. Police still suspect that her case is a homicide.
- [23:24]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Over the years, several suspects were mentioned in different media articles. But in the July 22, 2020 edition of the Joliet Patch, the Will County Sheriff's Office revealed that the prime person of interest in this disappearance was a man named William Billy Redden. Police noted that Redden had prior convictions for aggravated battery involving a 19 month old child and he lived just two blocks from Sarah in the 200 block of Reichman Street. Oftentimes, offenders who abduct children have some connection to the child and Billy certainly had one with Sarah. He was her dad's cousin, so he was not a stranger to her and she was someone that she knew.
- [23:56]
Detective Chris Hall
Redden died in 2010, but the Patch interviewed Sarah's former babysitter in 2020 and she had this to say about him.
- [24:04]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
He was there all the time. Billy Reden was creepy.
- [24:08]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Really, really scary.
- [24:10]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
Everybody was thinking it was Billy. I think everybody kind of just stayed away from Billy.
- [24:17]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Other area residents also talked about being afraid of Redden, and the police focused on him almost immediately back in 1981. But it wasn't until 2020 when the community learned a lot more about the investigation. That year, Will County Deputy Chief Dan Jungles told the media that they had excavated Redden's crawl space in 2019 and and that the Sheriff's Department also searched a rural property that he owned on Noel Road as well. Unfortunately, they didn't find Sarah.
- [24:41]
Detective Chris Hall
Newspaper articles include that the Avon family had remained in contact with the Will County Sheriff's Department and that they appreciate the continued efforts of the agency. Sarah's sister was quoted in the same Patch article as saying, we deeply appreciate the efforts of all those at the Sheriff's Department national center for Missing and Exploited Children and the family who lived on the property on Newell Road for all of their hard work, dedication and commitment to finding a resolution to Sarah's case. Law enforcement in Will county continue to seek the public's help for information on Billy Redden and the case. So if you or anyone else know of any information about Sarah's disappearance or information about Billy Redden that could be helpful, please contact the Will County Sheriff's office at 815-727-8574. You can also provide an anonymous tip online to them or reach out to us and we can put you in contact. Similar to April, we have included a photograph of Sarah along with this episode. As we approach the 1980s, there are several males who disappeared in Will county, including a 32 year old white man named David Goffin on May 31, 1983 and a 33 year old white man named Ronnie Wooten on the 4th of July in 1985. Neither case appears to have any apparent connections to Wyteria, but both are still missing and the Will County Sheriff's Office is the investigating agency for both cases.
- [26:07]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Will county has a number of other cold case missing persons throughout the 80s, 90s and 2000s just like Kane county has. Certainly people in the Chicagoland know of two famous cases out of that county. On April 30, 2007, 37 year old Lisa Stebick disappeared from Plainfield, Illinois. Her husband Craig Stebick reportedly said he saw her leaving the house to go to an exercise class before she disappeared. She has never been found and no one has ever been charged in her disappearance. Then on October 28, 2008, 23 year old Stacy Peterson disappeared from nearby Bolingbrook, also in Will County. Stacy's case made national headlines because she was the fourth wife of Bolingbrook Police Sergeant Drew Peterson, whose third wife Kathleen Savio had been found dead in a bathtub. Police reopened Kathleen's case and Drew was later convicted for her murder, but Stacy has still never been found.
- [26:55]
Detective Chris Hall
The Will County Sheriff's Department also recently had a big win in the cold case, so we wanted to mention it here and give them a shout out. On January 5th of 2026, the Will County Sheriff's Office charged 82 year old Gilbert Bernal Sr. With the murder of his wife Joan Bernal. Joan disappeared in December of 1988 and her body had never been found. But through the hard work of the Will County Sheriff's Department and tips from the public, they charged a case that is nearly 37 years old. It is just one more example like our own case with Karen Sheepers in March of 2024 and North Aurora's case with Kathy Holly in the fall of 2025 in which area agencies are starting to focus and close cold cases. These examples give us hope that we can continue this trend as we continue focusing on our own cases for sure.
- [27:41]
Detective Andrew Houghton
And we certainly want to continue to highlight and mention other area cold cases as well when we come across them in our investigations. Because even though these cases are in Will county and they don't appear to be related to Wyteria's case. Every single case matters. Girls like April and Sarah have been missing for over 40 years, and each case, whether they became national headline news or not, were people who mattered. Each missing person or victim had families who still mourn their loss and struggle with not knowing where their loved one is. And each family and each victim deserved to be remembered and kept in the spotlight in hopes that someone will help solve their case. So, please, if you have any information about any of the cases we've discussed in this episode, please contact us.
- [28:23]
Detective Chris Hall
Well, as of now, we have visited Joliet, and we are very confident that we have identified the actual hotel that Whiteeria potentially planned to go to. But we still don't know if she actually traveled there. We're still working to try to find old records for tenants and Joliet, but those records simply may no longer exist. We will certainly update our listeners as we find new information, but Joliet is just one of multiple cities that we plan to visit over the course of this season. If you believe that you have information about Whiteeria that relates to Joliet or anywhere else, please reach out to us. You can remain anonymous if you'd like. And I know we've said this phrase several times, but what you know is more important to us than who you are.
- [29:02]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Yeah, Chris. And if you knew Wyteria in any way, please contact us. We would love to talk to more people who actually knew her, who lived in the Douglas hotel or maybe who stayed at the Joliet motor hotel in 1982 or 1983. Proving whether she actually went to Joliet would be a huge step in this investigation. So please don't hesitate to contact us if you think you know something. No detail is too small.
- [29:38]
Detective Chris Hall
We've taken our listeners to sites in Joliet and Elgin that are related to this case, but we have more sites and cities to visit. We know that Whiteeria was living in Aurora, Illinois, prior to her move into Elgin, and we know that she had family and children still living there at the time of her disappearance. Could Whiteeria have decided to go back home to Aurora? Or could she have meant to go there first before moving on to Joliet or somewhere else? It's all certainly possible. Please join us next time as we leave Elgin. Again, travel to Byteria's hometown of Aurora, Illinois, as we continue our investigation here on Somebody knows something.
- [30:17]
Chief Anna Lally
If you or anyone you know has information about this case or any other other cold case in Elgin, please contact the Elgin Police Department Cold case email@coldcasetipselgenil.gov or the cold case tip line at 847289 cold. You can also review cold case information on the Elgin Police Department's Cold case page at www.elgincoldcases.com, where every cold case, homicide and missing persons case is listed with photographs and information about each case.
- [30:59]
Detective Andrew Houghton
Forget whatever plans you have this weekend because you're staying at home and playing on spinquest, and there's never been a better time to sign up than right now. New users get $30 coin packs for just $10. All the table games you love, with hundreds of slot games and real cash Prizes. That's at spin spinquest.com S P I
- [31:18]
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
N Q U-E S-T.com Spinquest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.
- [31:28]
Detective Chris Hall
Liberty Mutual customizes your car and home insurance. And now we're customizing this ad for your morning commute to wake you up, which could help your driving. Science says that stimulating the brain increases alertness, so here's a pop quiz. How many months have 28 days? What gets wetter as it dries? What has keys but can't open? Locks? If you don't want to hear the answers, turn off this Liberty Mutual AD. Now. 12 months. A towel piano. Enjoy being fully alert.
- [31:55]
Chief Anna Lally
Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty.