Buell Ave. Remains Big Part Of Wendy Gessing Mystery

JOLIET, IL — Wendy Gessing has not been seen alive since she left work around 4 p.m. June 12 at the Pizzas By Marchelloni restaurant in Crest Hill. That night or the next, her gray Honda CRV turned up in Joliet, in the 400 block of Buell Avenue, according to Rudy Guajardo. Guajardo owns the house of Joliet's most famous missing person, newspaper editor Molly Zelko, who vanished in September 1957.

During an interview last week on his front porch at 413 Buell Ave., Guajardo told Joliet Patch that he noticed Gessing's gray Honda CRV parked across the street for at least three or four days last month, and didn't think anything was suspicious at the time.

"People dump their cars here all the time," he said.

But when Crest Hill police announced on social media that there was a missing person and police posted a photo Gessing's missing vehicle and license plates, the Joliet homeowner realized the car parked across the street might belong to the missing Crest Hill woman.

He walked outside and sure enough, the license plates matched.

"I snapped a picture and called Crest Hill," Guajardo said.

At first, the Crest Hill police dispatchers urged him to call Joliet police, since that's where the car was.

No, no, he insisted. He informed the dispatchers that Crest Hill police had just issued a social media bulletin asking for the public's help in finding the missing woman. Crest Hill police investigators came to his neighborhood. They took possession of the car and had it towed.

Guajardo said he also provided police detectives with access to his front porch's video camera, but there was nothing on the video showing Gessing or anyone else parking her car in the 400 block of Buell Avenue and leaving it there.

As for Gessing's car, "nothing looked out of ordinary," Guajardo said. "When I noticed that was the vehicle, I called Crest Hill and the detectives ... they said thank you very much for calling. Knowing I have a camera, I let them come for it, but the angle wasn't there. The angle was not pointing that way."

The area where Gessing's car was found is along a dead-end section of Buell Avenue about a half block from Western Avenue. Several neighbors on Buell Avenue told Joliet Patch there is a known drug house within walking distance of where the car was found.

Still, Guajardo said he is positive he had not previously seen Gessing or her gray Honda CRV prior to its discovery in mid-June.

"I hope she's fine and obviously, I hope she's found alive,"Guajardo remarked last week. "I seen her all the time every time I was down there (at Pizzas By Marcelloni) ordering pizza. I just didn't know it. I just never put two and two together that it was her."

Guajardo thought that some detectives from Crest Hill and Will County canvassed his neighborhood a couple of times back in June, but he wasn't sure whether investigators have returned to his street more recently.

"I just hope they keep me updated," he said. "Me and my neighbors."