Murdered Elgin Woman Warned By Family Of Dangerous Son

ELGIN, IL — Family members of Gail Peck, who prosecutors say was murdered by her 55-year-old son, Brian Peck, warned her to stay away from him, according to reports. She was murdered about two months after moving to Elgin with Brian Peck, who stayed in her basement, despite pleas from her family members that she was not safe around him.

"We had urged her to distance herself from Brian. It was not only her family but her friends, too," Gail Peck's cousin, Dennis "Doc" Pascual said, according to the Daily Herald. Their fear for her safety was not unfounded—in 2016, she filed an order of protection against Brian Peck after he physically and verbally abused her over an argument over loud music.

It was during this argument that he hit her in the face, scratched her and later lifted her up by her neck in an apparent attempt to snap her neck, she said. Brian Peck was later arrested and, in June, 2016 pleaded guilty to domestic battery in DuPage County.

Pascual believes the only reason she stayed with her son was one of maternal instinct. "She never expressed it directly to me, but the only reason, I think, is motherly love," Pascual said, according to the Herald. "That was her only child."

Loud music was also the catalyst sparking the incident that led to her murder, prosecutors say. Brian Peck pleaded not guilty to the murder in Cook County court on Friday.

According to prosecutors, Brian Peck told detectives his mother was "furious that he was playing Jimi Hendrix music so loud" and confronted him with a "military style knife" during an argument about 3:30 a.m. Oct. 25. The 260-pound Brian Peck allegedly stomped on his 140-pound mother's head and neck until she was dead. After realizing she was dead, he told police he "put her in the bathtub and hacked her up," prosecutors said during his bond hearing.

He reported her missing two days later.

Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Maria McCarthy laid out the following timeline of the days surrounding Gail Peck's murder:

Tuesday, Oct. 24:

• Gail and Brian Peck have dinner at a Schaumburg restaurant on Tuesday evening. Gail Peck speaks with a friend at the restaurant — and it's the last time anyone other than her son has contact with her.

Wednesday, Oct. 25:

• 4:59 a.m.: Brian Peck withdraws $500 from Gail Peck's checking account using her debit card at a drive-thru ATM, a transaction that is captured on video. As he did not have his own car, Brian Peckc was driving his mother's vehicle.
• 5:35 a.m.: Brian Peck buys carpet cleaner and OxiClean at Walmart. This is also captured on video.
• Just before 8 a.m.: Brian Peck calls the cleaning woman and tells her not to come that day. The cleaning woman had worked for Gail Peck for years and told authorities she had never received a call from Brian Peck or a cancellation on the morning she was scheduled to clean.
• 3:33 p.m.: Brian purchases paver bricks, three tarps and nylon cord at Home Depot; the purchase is captured on video.

Thursday, Oct. 26:

• 1:37 p.m.: Brian Peck purchases a five-piece Protege luggage set, duffel bag and Bissell steam carpet cleaner at Walmart. The transaction is recorded on video and police recovered a receipt, according to McCarthy. Police later obtained an identical Protege luggage set and duffel bag matching those that contained Gail Peck's body parts; the remaining pieces of luggage were found in a closet in Gail Peck's home.

Friday, Oct. 27:

• 7 a.m.: Gail Peck's niece calls her phone. Brian Peck answers and tells the niece that his mother is "sick as a dog" and can't come to the phone.
• 1:15 p.m.: $4,000 is transferred from Gail Peck's savings account to her checking account.
• 3:10 p.m.: Brian Peck purchases Drano at Walgreens.
• 3:39 p.m.: Brian Peck calls 911, saying his mother took her dog for a walk, but the dog came back without her.

Saturday, Oct. 28:

• 11 a.m.: A fisherman finds a duffel bag containing two severed legs and a hand saw in the Lincoln Park rowing lagoon. Chicago police send a marine unit to the lagoon, where they uncover a suitcase containing a female torso severed at the upper thighs. The suitcase and duffel bag were part of a five-piece Protege brand luggage set, as indicated by a sticker on the front of the suitcase. Each piece of luggage contains paver bricks.
• An autopsy conducted by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office determines that the body parts are consistent with those of a 76-year-old woman, and the torso bears a lower-back scar consistent with spinal fusion surgery. Gail had spinal fusion surgery, McCarthy said.

Brian Peck pleaded guilty to domestic battery in June 2016 in DuPage County and was sentenced to 100 days in jail and probation. At the time, he and his mother lived in Oak Brook.

In an order of protection filed in March 2016, Gail Peck wrote that she feared her son. She described a previous incident in which she and Brian Peck argued about loud music. She said she was driving him to a restaurant while he was intoxicated. "He was playing the music too loud at home, so I told him, Don't play it so loud in the house or the neighbors would complain," Gail Peck wrote. "He started yelling at me and calling me bad names."

The elderly woman said she told her son she would no longer drive him to the restaurant and turned the car around. "He hit me and kept pulling on my jacket," Gail Peck wrote. When she threatened to call the police, "he took my cell phone and he opened the door and pretended to throw it out the car. He hit me in the face and he scratched me on my face and I was bleeding."

Gail Peck said her son called police when they got home and "they told him to calm down and relax." Instead, she said, "(Brian) came upstairs and he told me he was going to kill me and he came up behind me and put me in a choke hold and lifted me off the ground, he tried to snap my neck." When he eventually let her go, "I told him to get away from me and when he left I called the police and he was arrested."

This article includes reporting from Shannon Antinori (Patch Staff) and Jonah Meadows (Patch Staff)

Article images Brian Peck booking photograph, Gail Peck family photograph | Cook County Jail, Elgin PD