UNSOLVED CHILD MURDER: UNKNOWN NEWBORN
Kickapoo, IL -- When two brothers paid a dollar for an old footlocker at an estate sale here, they thought it probably contained odds and ends of machine parts from the owner's workshop. But when they broke the lock and opened the box, they discovered the decades-old mummified remains of a newborn infant, unleashing a mystery that's horrified and captivated the village of about 200 residents tucked into cornfields just outside Peoria. In a small town where everybody knows everyone else - and everyone else's business - nobody has a clue where the infant came from or how long it lay unknown in a garage attic. "That's been a real well-kept secret," said Norma Gilles, owner of Gilles Tap, one of the handful of businesses along the one-block stretch of highway that serves as the village's main street. The footlocker apparently was untouched for decades until Tuesday, when an auction was held to sell the property of 84-year-old William Searle, who died in May. Brothers Greg and Brad Gilles, who once lived across the street and knew that the retired carpenter liked to tinker with machines, bought it hoping it contained parts that could be used to help build a go-cart for Greg Gilles' children. When they broke it open they found a sealed cardboard box. Inside the box was a suitcase that contained the body of an infant girl. "At first I thought it was an antique doll. And when I looked closer, I realized it wasn't," Brad Gilles told the Peoria Journal Star. An autopsy answered only a few of the questions posed by investigators trying to determine how the full-term baby died and who hid the body. Coroner Dan Heinz said the umbilical cord was still attached and the placenta also was in the box, hinting strongly toward an effort to cover up an unnoticed pregnancy and clandestine birth. There were no signs of trauma, Heinz said. He will ask a forensic anthropologist to try to determine if the child was stillborn or killed. Heinz said the infant died decades ago, but it is impossible to determine when just by examining the body. Peoria County Chief Deputy Mike McCoy said the case is being handled as a suspicious death. He said detectives are trying to contact Searle's children and stepchildren, but some have died and the survivors are scattered across the country. Investigators hope one of them will be able and willing to answer their questions. "Obviously, some of these people aren't real happy about talking about it," he said. Police often solve years-old cases, but most were investigated when they occurred, giving later detectives a foundation. McCoy said this situation is a true test of investigative ability since the baby died so long ago and detectives have little to start with. "There are endless possibilities here. Everybody has a theory but nobody has any facts," he said. McCoy said the clues appear to point to a pregnancy and delivery that went unnoticed, perhaps involving an unmarried woman who didn't want to face the shame an out-of-wedlock birth would have brought 20 years or more ago in a small central Illinois village. Caroline Huffman, who grew up across the street from Searle's home, agreed. "That would have been disastrous back then," she said. Theories dominated conversation over extra-large cheeseburgers and lunchtime beers at Gilles Tap on Friday. Like most residents, who remember Searle as a quiet man who kept to himself, Norma Gilles believes he had no idea there was a body hidden in his garage. Gilles said when Searle married his second wife and moved into house - which had been in the Searle family - around 1970, only two sons lived with them and the rest of his children and stepchildren were grown. She theorizes that the body was hidden in the trunk before then and moved to Kickapoo along with the rest of the family possessions. The footlocker apparently had belonged to Bill "Tucker" Vogt, a stepson of Searle's, and had his name written on it, Gilles said. But she said Tucker died about five weeks ago. Gilles predicted the discovery will become part of local folklore. "Maybe the secret went to the grave," she said. "I don't think they'll ever know what happened." https://www.dailyeasternnews.com/2001/08/27/infants-body-found-in-trunk-at-estate-sale/ UNSOLVED CHILD MURDER : UNKNOWN NEWBORN September 6, 2001 A buyer at a Chicago estate sale made a gruesome discovery this week when he opened a footlocker he had bought and found the mummified body of a newborn girl inside. Peoria County authorities say the body is that of a full-term baby, with its umbilical cord still attached and remnants of a placenta inside a blanket around its body. The cord had not been cut or clamped, suggesting the baby died during or soon after an at-home birth--perhaps at the home where she was found in the small central Illinois town of Kickapoo. The baby may have been born 20 or 30 years ago, officials speculate. Examinations are scheduled to more closely determine the date, but forensic experts are pinning their hopes on police interviews to figure out how--and why--the baby died. The body was tightly sealed under several layers of coverings, preserving for years the tiny body, skin and wisps of reddish-blond hair. But as well-preserved as the corpse is, it offers few clues for investigators. The baby had no fractured bones and no wounds on her body. "The most certain knowledge we'll ever have will come if the Sheriff's Department finds someone who knows of this," said Heinz. "Other than that, we might never know." The estate sale came after the May death of 84-year-old William Searle, who had lived in the house since the 1960s. His wife died a few years earlier, as have some of the couple's children. Other family members have moved away. "This isn't something that was recent, something that happened a year or two ago," said Michael McCoy, chief deputy of the Peoria County Sheriff's Department. "That could hinder the investigation. The owner has passed away, his wife has passed away, several of his children have passed away. That makes it tough." No one at this point even knows if the body indicates any crime more serious than failing to report a death. The baby could have died naturally. (The Chicago Tribune, donated by KSHOhio) https://asylumeclectica.com/morbid/archives/morb0901.htmhttps://groups.google.com/g/alt.true-crime/c/u_F6aVeRL1A/m/2tiK9JAhPeAJ
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