3 Murdered In Joliet Home: Police Chief

JOLIET, IL - The Joliet Police Department is actively investigating an apparent triple homicide that occurred on Thursday. Police Chief Brian Benton said the Joliet Police Department was notified of the incident around 3 p.m. The bodies were discovered inside a home in the 2000 block of Great Falls Drive in Joliet's Cumberland subdivision. The home, which is in Joliet but has a Plainfield mailing address, is near County Line Road between Caton Farm Road and Theodore Street.

Benton said that police officers were directed into the home by someone and once inside officers discovered the dead bodies of three adult victims there. At this point, investigators are treating all three as homicide victims, Benton said. No arrests have been made as of yet.

"We're currently treating it as a homicide," Benton told Patch shortly before 7:30 p.m. "The names are not being released. It's a very active investigation." (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

On Thursday night, Benton met with WGN-TV and several other news reporters gathered near the scene of the crime. "There appears to have been a party at the residence sometime overnight ... and we weren't called here until this afternoon about 3 o'clock," Benton announced.

When asked about the three bodies found inside, Benton told the group of reporters, "the victims appear to have been shot to death."

Benton said he wasn't ready to release details about the victims' ages, their genders or whether they lived at the home or resided elsewhere.

Relatives of the victims are still being notified about the deaths, he noted.

"We're asking the public's help," Benton said. "This is still very active."

The chief told reporters that it was his understanding that the neighbors were aware of the party at the home on Great Falls Drive, but there were no calls to the police department about the party being unruly or getting out of hand.

"We want to assure the public that we are out in force tonight to try to help find who did this," Benton said Thursday night.

The chief also said that investigators have uncovered no evidence suggesting that anybody else in the Cumberland neighborhood might be a target for the killer who is still at large.

"I would say there is no obvious direct threat to any of the neighbors or any of the citizens here. We don't believe this was a random act," Benton added. "We believe the occupants at the residence and the party-goers all knew each other."

Joliet Mayor Bob O'Dekirk, a former Joliet police officer of 10 years, told Patch that he stopped by the scene of the apparent triple homicide around 5 p.m.

"When I was out at the scene, they had the crime scene under control. I have full confidence in our police department, and I'm confident they'll find the person or persons who did this," O'Dekirk said.

"We have a professional police department, and they have dealt with things like this before. They know what they're doing."

Anybody with information that can help homicide investigators piece together the case should call the Joliet Police Department's investigations unit at 815-724-3020, Benton said.

Patch photos by John Ferak