‘Incompetent’ Cops Told 10 Years Ago to Search House For Serial Killer’s Victim, Says Crime Writer

JOLIET, IL — A true crime author claims she told the “incompetent” Rolling Meadows police to search a home on Joliet’s Barber Lane more than 10 years ago.

“Why they’ve been sitting there doing nothing just irritates the hell out of me,” said Bonnie Thompson, the author of the “Buried Truth Trilogy” and two other books.

The police started a second week of searching the house Monday but have yet to inform Will County Coroner Patrick O’Neil that they have found any human remains.

A law enforcement source told Patch last week that the Rolling Meadows police were leading the search for Michael Mansfield, a Lincoln College student who vanished on New Year’s Eve 1975.

Mansfield’s roommate, Russell Smrekar, who was later convicted of murdering a Lincoln man and his pregnant wife, reportedly confessed on his deathbed to killing Mansfield as well.

Before he died at Menard Correctional Center in October 2011, Smrekar, who was from Joliet, also reportedly confessed to killing a second Lincoln woman.

When he vanished, Mansfield was supposed to testify against Smrekar, who had been accused of stealing from other students in their dorm.

Months later, Smrekar got caught stealing steaks from a Kroger supermarket in Lincoln. The manager of the Kroger, Jay Fry, was a witness for the prosecution. He was the other man Smrekar killed. Smrekar also murdered Fry’s wife, Robin.

The woman Smrekar reportedly confessed on his deathbed to killing, Ruth Martin, was another witness in the theft case. She had merely happened to see Smrekar stealing.

A family living in the house from 1974 until about five years ago was related to Smrekar. Smrekar’s mother and the mother living in the house on Barber Lane were cousins.

A local man who grew up in the house and just turned 7 years old when Mansfield disappeared declined to comment on the search of his childhood home.

The police source said searchers were looking for Mansfield’s remains in the crawlspace of the house on Barber Lane.

Thompson, who is the daughter of Roger Thompson, the Logan County prosecutor who tried Smrekar for murder, said she has spent 20 years investigating Smrekar’s killings, as well as those committed in Lincoln in the summer of 1976 by a Charles Manson copycat named Michael Drabing. Drabing, 61, was sentenced to 100 years in prison.

Thompson said a Rolling Meadows detective reached out to her in 2006 and, in an attempt to assist, she wrote a detailed letter instructing them to search the Barber Lane house — and gave the police her reasons why. Among those reasons, she said, was the husband and wife living there “were the ones who provided Russell with an alibi for the Fry murders.”

The couple claimed Smrekar was at their home in Joliet watching “Bonnie and Clyde” when the Frys were getting killed in Lincoln, Thompson said.

“They lied and they got caught lying,” Thompson said. “That tells you about their credibility, and they have none.”

Thompson said she still does not know why the Rolling Meadows police, whom she called “incompetent,” disregarded her tip for so long.

“For 11 years they ignored it, and (Rolling Meadows) is what, 43 miles away?” she said.

The Rolling Meadows police have refused to release reports on the Mansfield investigation. Rolling Meadows police Cmdr. Thomas Gadomski has failed to return numerous calls about the search in Joliet. On Monday, he failed to respond when asked about Thompson’s assessment that his department is incompetent.

Thompson said Mansfield’s mother died in 2014.

“I’m glad they’re finally doing something,” she said, “but the tragedy is, if they do find something, it will be after the time that Michael’s mother died.”

image of Bonnie Thompson via BuriedTruthTrilogy.com