Posted on 02/11/2024 11:45:01 PM PST by nickcarraway
Barry Lee Whelpley died this weekend behind bars – while awaiting trial for the murder of a Naperville teenager more than 50 years ago.
Now, the family of Julie Ann Hanson will never learn if a jury of his peers would have found Whelpley guilty of her murder.
Two and a half years after his arrest, a trial date still has not been set. A series of setbacks and legal hurdles for prosecutors helped the case drag on – and now, it is a trial that will never happen.
Four days after the Fourth of July in 1972, the 15-year-old Hanson borrowed her brother's bike from their home on Wehrli Drive – never to return.
Her body was found later the same day in what was then a cornfield near 87th Street and Modaff Road in Naperville. Alongside her body was the bicycle, which she had been riding to her brother's baseball game. Police said she had been stabbed 36 times and sexually assaulted.
For almost 50 years, the case sat cold – while small amounts of evidence, degraded and contaminated, just sat.
That changed in 2021, when Naperville police detectives mentioned the case to forensics experts at a police convention in Las Vegas. With the help of new technology, they found a hit.
DNA from clothing found on the scene was a crucial piece of evidence that last summer took police to the home of Whelpley, a Minnesota welder.
"This was the last resort," said DNA expert Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick of Identifinders International. "They tried it and it worked."
It led detectives to the suburban Minneapolis home of retired welder, and Naperville transplant, Barry Lee Whelpley. But something happened when Naperville police came to his home to question him.
"They had a body camera on during their interview with him in the house – it took place about seven or eight hours," said Whelpley's attorney, Terry Ekl, said in 2022. "But then when his wife got there, two of the detectives took the body cameras off, put them on a table - which permitted them to record a private conversation between the defendant and his wife."
That violated the Illinois Eavesdropping Statute, and a judge bounced the body camera footage - a back-and-forth that delayed the trial so long, the defendeat died before it could happen.
Whelpley was found dead in his Will County jail cell Friday morning. He died before a jury could decide what role, if any, he had in the death of Julie Hanson back in the summer of '72.
Julie would be 67 years old today.
Julie-Ann-Hanson.jpg Julie Ann Hanson NAPERVILLE POLICE Sources said late Sunday that Whelpley died of a heart attack behind bars.
Much of this case was kept out of public view and off public record after attorneys for both sides got the judge to agree to keep documents sealed.
We hope those now get unsealed, so we can learn what authorities would have presented had Whelpley survived.
How in the hell could they keep him in jail for 50 years without a trial???
No, the case was cold for 50 years. They didn’t arrest him until 2021.
Oh, my. Reading has consequences.
I guess it might be a bit embarrassing to admit to your family that you brutally raped and murdered a young girl back in the day....not exactly like stealing hubcaps...
1972 still being kept alive by taxpayer money, an absolute disgrace our justice system is. Should be stream lined immediate trial and if guilty, your dead!. tired of tis liberal sh##
Do you remember the case of that actor who admitted in marital therapy that he had had inappropriate contact with a minor girl in the Early ‘70s and early ‘80s. The wife was surreptitiously recording the therapy session, and it was later released to the police. I’m not sure about the legality of recording a therapy session, or using that as evidence.
OOPS!!
Barry Lee Whelpley was 79 when he died.
Its really unfortunate he got to live out almost his whole life before being caught. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Still, I am glad the law caught up with him eventually. I always like hearing about how DNA evidence and other new technology allows police to catch murderers and rapists who thought they had gotten away with it because it was many years ago.
Perp was about 27 during the commission of the crime. Hard to believe that was his first and only rape and murder.
HUH sounds like he was living a normal life with is family until 2021.
“”But then when his wife got there, two of the detectives took the body cameras off, put them on a table - which permitted them to record a private conversation between the defendant and his wife.”
That violated the Illinois Eavesdropping Statute, and a judge bounced the body camera footage -”
The morons pooched the case by thinking the law didn’t apply to them.
Our country has become brain-damaged:
Now, the family of Julie Ann Hanson will never learn if a jury of his peers would have found Whelpley guilty of her murder.
My response: Hey, the lump of feces is dead. Good riddance.
And he died in jail. Everyone knows what he did
May he burn in Hell
“The morons pooched the case by thinking the law didn’t apply to them.”
Rule #1: Don’t use officially-audited gizmos to do naughty things.
Back in the day, any good info gleaned from an illegal source would have been called in to a snitch line from a pay phone several jurisdictions away.
Math whiz or paperback writer to find another way to say July 8th 1972?
Okay perps dead, what did the tapes reveal???
The perp is dead but his wife is still alive and has something to say about the illegal eavesdropping.
She’s not charged with anything. She should expose what’s on the tapes for the family of that girl.
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