Son, Mom Fought Over Loud Music Before Elgin Murder: Prosecutors

ELGIN, IL — In the years leading up to her murder, Gail Peck had a tumultuous relationship with her son and took out at least two orders of protection against him, saying she feared for her life, according to court records. On Tuesday, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Maria McCarthy laid out a timeline for the days before and after Gail Peck's murder, saying the 76-year-old was last seen with son Brian Peck at a Schaumburg restaurant three days before he reported her missing.

Cook County Judge Steven Goebel ordered Brian Peck, 55, held without bond Tuesday. Prosecutors say Brian Peck admitted to killing his mother, hacking her body up with a hand saw and then disposing of it at two separate locations. Brian Peck, who was Gail Peck's only child and lived in her basement, also withdrew $500 from his mother's checking account and transferred $4,000 from her savings in the days after her murder, McCarthy said.

Cook County Assistant Public Defender Caroline Glennon, who is representing Brian Peck, said he was her caregiver and had been taking care of her for seven years, according to the Daily Herald.

The bank transactions, along with trips to purchase carpet cleaner, OxiClean, a steam cleaner, Drano, paver bricks and luggage used to conceal the elderly woman's body were all caught on surveillance video, according to authorities.

Court documents filed by McCarthy lay out a timelines for the days surrounding Gail Peck's death.

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 Peck 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 Peck 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 Peck had spinal fusion surgery, McCarthy said.

According to McCarthy, Elgin police searched the Peck home, finding a stain on the carpet in Gail Peck's room that tested positive for blood. A bottle of carpet cleaner was found near the stain, and police removed a portion of the carpet to find a larger bloodstain that had soaked into the wooden floor and down into the ceiling tiles of the basement below. What appeared to be blood spatter was found on the lower portion of an armchair in Gail Peck's room and on a table near the blood stain, McCarthy said. More blood stains were found on a chair in Gail Peck's bathroom, on the underside of the Bissell steam cleaner and on a guest bathroom sink on the first floor, she said.

Police also found a red towel in the Peck home that was identical to one found in the suitcase that contained the torso, according to McCarthy, and a cadaver dog signaled that human remains had been in the trunk of Gail Peck's car.

McCarthy said Brian Peck originally told police the blood stains on the carpet were the result of an accident early Wednesday morning, claiming his mother carried a plate with a muffin, knife and fork into her bedroom and dropped them, then fell on the plate and knife, cutting her knee as she bent to clean up the mess.

He changed his story after police confronted him with video stills of himself purchasing the suitcase, duffel bag and paver bricks, as well as photos of the duffel bag containing the body parts, according to prosecutors. Brian Peck then claimed his mother called him on the phone while he was in the basement at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday and asked him to come to her bedroom, McCarthy said. When he did, he told police his mother was furious that he was playing Jimi Hendrix music loudly. "(Brian Peck) said that (Gail Peck) told him that she wanted him to leave and produced a military-style knife," according to McCarthy.

Brian Peck said he "knocked (his mother's) leg out from under her and stomped on her head and neck," McCarthy said, noting that Gail Peck was 5-foot-4 and 140 pounds, while her son is 6-foot-1 and 260 pounds. "(Brian Peck) said, 'I put her in the bathtub and hacked her up,'" McCarthy said.

Brian Peck told police he took his mother's body into the guest bedroom bathroom, placed her in the bathtub and severed her body parts with the hand saw found in the duffel bag with the severed legs, according to McCarthy. He put the body parts in garbage bags and dragged them down the stairs to the basement, where he said he intended to store them in a refrigerator. McCarthy said Peck told authorities that plan was scrapped when he used a hatchet to knock out shelves in the refrigerator and cut into the freon, so he left the bags on the basement floor overnight.

On Wednesday morning, Brian Peck said he drove the bags containing his mother's head and arms to Montrose Harbor and threw them in Lake Michigan, according to McCarthy. The next day he purchased the suitcase and duffel bag, put Gail Peck's torso and legs in them and drove to Chicago, throwing them in the water near Diversey Harbor, prosecutors said. I-PASS records confirmed Brian Peck's travels in and out of Chicago, according to authorities.

RELATED: Son Admitted Dismembering Mother, Dumping Remains: Prosecutors

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."

On March 9, 2016, Gail Peck wrote that she visited her son in jail. "I told Brian that he crossed the line when he was violent with me and that he was no longer my son and that I never want contact with him again."

Main photo: Gail Peck/Elgin Police Department