Riley Fox's Killer, Scott Eby, Dies At Illinois Prison

WILMINGTON, IL — Scott Eby, the notorious child rapist and murderer of little Riley Fox of Wilmington, died on Thursday at the Menard Correctional Center, where Eby was serving his life prison sentence for the barbaric 2004 crime. Eby died at 52 years old.

"It is ironic that Kevin Fox and Scott Eby died in the same year. Kevin's death was heartbreaking and tragic. Eby's death is the opposite. He forfeited his right to life when he murdered Riley. His death brings a measure of justice and relief to Riley's family," world-famous wrongful conviction lawyer Kathleen Zellner, who freed Kevin Fox from the Will County Jail, wrote Joliet Patch's editor on Friday morning.

On Thursday evening, Patch left a voice mail message and sent an email to Illinois Department of Corrections spokesperson Naomi Puzzello surrounding Eby's death.

She still has not responded.

Kevin Fox was initially charged with his daughter's June 2004 murder. Under questioning by Will County detectives, Fox confessed to the crime, but was later exonerated through DNA evidence after attorney Kathleen Zellner pushed to have a private lab test "inconclusive" saliva samples.

Almost a year later, Fox was freed from the Will County Jail, and his murder charges were dismissed. However, the heinous killing remained unsolved for the next five years. Riley was found dead in a creek not far from her home in Wilmington.

As the years passed, one woman in Wilmington always had a strong suspicion that 33-year-old Scott Wayne Eby might be responsible for killing the 3-year-old and disposing of her body.

After Kevin and Melissa Fox announced a $100,000 reward was being offered for information leading to the killer's capture, Trisha Kiefer came forward, Zellner explained.

In March, Kevin Fox, the former Wilmington man who was wrongly arrested by the Will County Sheriff's Department for murdering his 3-year-old daughter Riley Fox in the summer of 2004, was killed in a head-on crash in Arkansas. Fox was 46.

"Kevin was one of the most courageous clients I have ever had," Fox's wrongful conviction lawyer Kathleen Zellner wrote Joliet Patch's editor at the time. "He will be remembered as the best father to his children anyone could have ever been. It is heartbreaking that he died so young."

Zellner also shared the tragic news on her Twitter page. She told Patch that Fox was living in Arkansas, along with his new wife and their two young daughters, ages 1 and 2.

As for Eby, Kiefer provided incriminating information about Eby to the FBI agents who came into the investigation many years later in hopes of learning the true killer's identity.

Kiefer had been reluctant to speak with authorities for a number of years because of her fear of Eby, who had been previously convicted of sexually assaulting a family member and was involved in other criminal activity.

In June 2004, Eby was driving around Wilmington burglarizing homes in the middle of the night. He burglarized a house across from Kevin Fox's place, and then he sneaked into the Fox house. When he saw Riley Fox sleeping on a living room couch, he took her with him.

Eby brought Riley to Forsythe Woods, where he sexually assaulted her. He later he told the FBI he decided to kill her after a bandana he'd worn to cover his face slipped off.

Along with collecting from the $100,000 reward put up by Kevin and Melissa Fox, Kiefer also collected a $10,000 FBI reward.

"I think Ms. Kiefer was very motivated to talk to the FBI when they conducted a neighborhood canvass because she knew she was dying of breast cancer, and she wanted her young son to be provided for after she was gone," Zellner told Patch. "I think our decision to make a reward offer was a critical component in solving the case.

"It seemed to prompt (Kiefer). It's not like the FBI went to her neighborhood and uncovered this."

In 2010, Scott Eby confessed and was later convicted of Riley's murder.