Heartbreaking Joliet Murder-Suicide Draws Mourners To Reed St.

JOLIET, IL - Several mourners drove to the 400 block of Reed Street, just north of Glenwood Avenue, to pay their respects to the victims of Monday's horrific tragedy in what the Joliet Police Department has classified as a murder-suicide. The Will County Coroner's office identified the mother and the children as 41-year-old Celisa Henning and her twins Makayla and Addison Henning. The three were pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m., the coroner's office said. The two girls were almost 6.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Will County Coroner's Office issued an updated press release. According to the preliminary autopsy, Makayla and Addison both died from multiple gunshot wounds to their heads. Their mother, Celisa (Lundborg) Henning, died from a single gunshot wound to her head. The Joliet Police Department is continuing to investigate the case, coroner's officials noted. Funeral home selection is still pending at this time.

"It's just heartbreaking no matter what the situation was," Joliet resident Dava Collman told Joliet Patch and other reporters Tuesday afternoon on Reed Street. "It's scary."

She and her husband, Stoney, came to Reed Street to place a silver angel with a candle in the front of the Henning family's home. Others dropped off bouquets of fresh flowers and stuffed animals, putting them in front of a large shade tree in the front yard. Three large crosses were erected in the front lawn to memorialize the mother and her two young daughters.

"It just breaks our heart," Stoney Collman said. "We didn't know the family. We (also) did this for Sema'j (Crosby). That was another one we still find hard to believe. How could a little girl lift a couch and get right under there?"

Sema'j Crosby was the 1-year-old girl who lived in Joliet Township's Preston Heights area. She was found dead inside her home back in April. Days later, a fire burned down the structure. So far, the Will County Sheriff's Department has not made any arrests and many people suspect the criminal investigation has gone cold.

Meanwhile, the Collmans say they wonder whether the Joliet Police Department, despite its best efforts, will figure out what prompted Celisa Henning to kill both her young daughters, then herself.

"They'll never find the answer of why," Dava Collman suggested. "They won't. She took that with her and her loved ones. Only she knows.

"This is just heartbreaking," she repeated. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

During an interview Tuesday morning, Will County Executive Larry Walsh said the Reed Street tragedy brings back awful memories of Christopher Vaughn's quadruple murders along a lonely frontage road near Interstate 55 between Joliet and Channahon. Subsequent trial testimony revealed the Oswego man murdered his entire family back in June 2007 to free himself of responsibility. Vaughn fatally shot his 34-year-old wife, Kimberly, then their three children, Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, 12.

Christopher Vaughn

But Monday's Will County homicides involving multiple child victims has a different set of circumstances. At the time of the killings, the children's father apparently was not home.

"It's absolutely stunning," Walsh said. "I'm always stunned, especially more so, when there's children. There's nothing that compares to the value of life. I've got 6 children and 19 grandchildren.

Larry Walsh

"I just question what goes through somebody's mind that commits that," Walsh said.

For a mother to murder her own children is unfathomable, Walsh said. The twins were enrolled in kindergarten at the nearby St. Paul's Catholic Church.

"She carried them for nine months and being twins, there's feedings, diaper changes, playtimes, naptimes, good gosh," Walsh said, shaking his head.

"I have all the confidence in the world in the Joliet Police Department and Chief Brian Benton and his administration. They will get to the bottom of this and see what transpired."

Even still, Walsh reflected, not even a perfect criminal investigation can change Monday's outcome.

"Whatever happened," Walsh said, "it's not good. What was the condition that brings a mother to that conclusion that life is not worth living anymore to take your twin daughters' lives?"

Images via Joliet Patch Editor John Ferak

Image of mother and daughters via Facebook screenshot