30 Homicides In Will County Since 2018

JOLIET, IL — In February 2018, a gruesome discovery was made along California Avenue in Joliet's Forest Park area. The body of a 21-year-old woman was dumped in a ditch. She had been there for days. She was fatally shot in the head. Fifteen months later, the slaying of Marissa Koziel remains an unsolved case at the Will County Sheriff's Department. Her killer has avoided captured.

On a positive note, the majority of homicide cases across Will County since 2018 have been cleared, often with an arrest. But that isn't true for all of the cases, notably the homicide of Koziel, the young woman from Manhattan.

They are still waiting and wondering whether their loved one's killer will be captured. Historically, the Will County Sheriff's Department as well as the Joliet Police have not had a good track record at solving homicides once the cases remain unsolved for a year or longer.

In recent weeks, Joliet Patch tracked down recent homicide data from the Office of Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. Patch requested information about all homicides that occurred in Will County in 2018 as well as that had occurred during the first three months of 2019.

Here's a rundown for all of those cases:

1. New Year Day's 2018, 15-year-old Victor Arroyo, multiple gunshot wounds, Victor was shot in Joliet's 900 block of Rosalind Street at the Fairview Public Housing Projects, along with 17-year-old Aliyah Monique Salazar, 17. She died a few minutes before midnight on Dec. 31, 2017 while Victor was pronounced dead shortly after midnight.

The double homicide remains unsolved at the Joliet Police Department.

2. Marissa Koziel, Feb. 23, 2018.

Thirteen months ago, Joliet Patch published an article about efforts by the murder victim's friends to raise $1,500 to have a bench located at the Pilcher Park Nature Center in Joliet.

"For someone to do this to her and take her life away at such a young age, it's horrible," Madison Gill of New Lenox told Patch at the time. "I don't know how to describe it. It's just horrible. It's been really hard. What am I going to do without her for the next how many more years I live?"

The death of Marissa Koziel remains unsolved at the Will County Sheriff's Office.

3. Daniel Rios, 52, of Joliet, March 9, 2018.

Rios was fatally shot in the head at the Izzy's Tavern on Joliet's Theodore Street. Bar patron Patrick Gleason was taken down by other customers and he remains at the Will County Jail, awaiting his first-degree murder trial.

4. Keonte Cook, 19, May 11, 2018.

Cook was fatally shot in the head in the 1400 block of North Center Street, a rough area on the city's near west-side. Cook's homicide remains unsolved. Joliet Police are in charge of the case.

5. Donald Woods Jr., 24, May 15, 2018. Woods was fatally shot in the back in a parking lot on Joliet's east side, in the 300 block of Sherman Street, another rough area. Joliet Police solved the case in quick fashion, arresting Martell Ollie on murder charges a few days later.

Nos. 6-7: Dontae Ray Morgan, 21, and Xavier Sallie, 19, June 27, 2018.

The charred bodies of homicide victims Morgan and Sallie were found inside of Sallie's car, which was set on fire and left on a remote stretch of Rowell Avenue in Joliet Township. After putting out the car fire, authorities discovered the two dead bodies inside. One died from a gunshot wound to the neck and the other was shot in the head. The Will County Sheriff's Department remains in charge of the case, but has been unable to find the pair's killer.

No. 8: Jennifer Lynn Underhill, July 23, 2018. An unincorporated Plainfield man and two women face charges in connection with the beating death of the 42-year-old Rochelle woman found slain outside a Romeoville warehouse. Romeoville Police have charged George L. Hooper, 34, with first-degree murder. Rose M. Parker, 57, was charged with obstructing justice. Amanda J. Weck, 33, also from the Lakewood Falls subdivision, was charged with reckless discharge of a firearm.

No. 9: Rebecca "Becky" Kazecki, Aug. 7, 2018. Coroner's records indicate that the 38-year-old Joliet woman died of an assault and blunt head trauma. Becky Kazecki had been a teacher for District 86. Her husband, Michael Kazecki, has been charged with murder. Joliet Police arrested Michael Kazecki while his wife was still hospitalized for severe head injuries.

No. 10: Eric Ervins, Aug. 11, 2018.Gang member Eric Ervins died of multiple gunshot wounds at the rear parking lot on Cardinal Lane for the notoriously dangerous Fairview Public Housing projects. Joliet Police are investigating the case. No arrests have been made in the 24-year-old's death.

11. Roberto Martinez Ferreira, 43, Aug. 24, 2018. Died of an assault and blunt head trauma at a Joliet hospital. However, the place of the injury was in Kankakee and Kankakee County.

12. Antaune Allen, 29, Aug. 30, 2018. Allen died of compressional asphyxia as a result of a motor vehicle striking a pedestrian in a parking lot in University Park, which is in Will County.

13. Marcedes "Marcy" Flakes, 28, Oct. 1, 2018. Flakes was fatally stabbed in the back in the 1400 block of Fairmont Avenue, at the Fairview Public Housing projects where she lived. Joliet Police arrested her long-time estranged boyfriend, Christopher Lee Beale, 28, on murder charges.

14. Nathan Ballard, 20, Oct. 28, 2018. The young man from Crest Hill was fatally shot in the chest during a late-night robbery near the Belmont Little League park in Joliet Township. Will County Sheriff's Office quickly solved the case arresting two young men, Elijah Watson, 20, and Anthony Francimore, 23, on first-degree murder charges.

15. Ashley Tucker, 25, October 2018 her homicide was not listed on the files provided to Patch, however, the Will County Coroner's Office notified Patch that was only because of additional tests that were being done. Joliet Police have charged Peter Zabala with her murder. Tucker's body was found incinerated inside a burn barrel in Lockport Township.

16. Joshua John Vasquez, 29, Oct. 29, 2018, died in Joliet of sepsis. However, the Will County Coroner's Office lists secondary causes of death as being multiple gunshot wounds and quadriplegia. The incident occurred in Chicago and in Cook County.

17. Aaron Tucker, 20, of Joliet, died Nov. 5, 2018, after suffering multiple gunshot wounds inside a car on Pioneer Road in Crest Hill. The Crest Hill Police Department has made no arrests and a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest is now available.

18. Millizza "Liza" Steen, Nov. 8, 2018. Steen was killed by a gunshot wound to her head during a murder-suicide at her house in Bolingbrook by her ex-boyfriend, Aswad "Shorty" Bryant, 44. The 37-year-old woman had visited the Will County Courthouse on multiple occasions since July in hopes of getting a stalking no-contact order against Aswad Ahmeer "Shorty" Bryant, court records reflect.

19. Danica Ford, 22, Nov. 12, 2018, formerly of North Carolina. Ford died of strangulation and her body was put in a remote area off West Jefferson Street near the Woodlawn Memorial Park property. The Will County Sheriff's Office later arrested Deiontae Shawnrico McMillian.

20. Jermaine Peete, 19, Dec. 23, 2018. Peete died of a gunshot wound of the arm in the 600 block of Dover Street. Joliet's Police Department arrested 18-year-old Joliet teenager Daniel Briceno in connection with the homicide.

21. Bruce Carter Jr., 38, on Feb. 6, 2019. Carter, of 213 DesPlaines St., Joliet, died of multiple gunshots. Last week, his death by Joliet Police Detective Aaron Bandy was ruled as a justifiable homicide.

22. Javier Cayetano, 13, died on Feb. 21, 2019 of multiple gunshot wounds in Joliet in an alley in the 300 block of May Street.Joliet Police have not made any arrests in the case.

23. Eugene Holmes, 27, Feb. 24, ,2019. Holmes, an employee at Burger Theory at the Holiday Inn Suites, died of multiple gunshot wounds during a drive-by shooting to a house in the 400 block of South Ottawa Street in Joliet. Joliet Police have not made any arrests in the case.

24-26: Giovanni Lee, 1, Gianna Lee, 6, Jacquelon Gaskin, 27, on Feb. 28, 2019. The two children died of gunshot wounds to the face and their mother died of a gunshot wound to her back, inside their east side house, 503 Whitley Ave.

The killer was the children's father, Brandyn Lee, who turned the gun on himself after committing the triple murder, Joliet Police determined.

No. 27: Emanuel Samuel Burgarino, 76, died of multiple stab wounds inside the Joliet Harrah's Casino Hotel on March 24. A day later, Joliet Police arrested Robert Watson, a 25-year-old transient, who had just arrived in Joliet about a month before the homicide. Prosecutors say that Watson's crime was caught on Harrah's video surveillance cameras and that he stabbed the Wisconsin visitor 26 times during a robbery in the fifth floor hotel hallway.

No. 28: Dimitri Allen, 26, died of a gunshot wound to the chest in the 1100 block of Cutter Avenue in Joliet's Forest Park area. Joliet Police have not made any arrests in the case.

The data provided by the coroner's office included cases through March 25. There were at least two other Joliet homicides that Patch has written about. Those cases are as follows:

No. 29: Jakias Holman, 26, of Joliet, was fatally shot inside his car on March 27 on Magnolia Avenue. Joliet Police have not made any arrests. There is a $5,000 reward on the case.

No. 30: April 30 fatal shooting of Gregory G. Brown Jr., 36, of Crest Hill. Brown was killed outside the Joliet Denny's Restaurant on Plainfield Road. Joliet Police have arrested three people in connection with Brown's slaying.