Romeo Nance Was Seen Running With A Rifle: Neighborhood Source

JOLIET, IL — When the Will County Sheriff's Office announced on Feb. 2 that Joliet mass murder defendant Romeo Nance used a handgun to kill 28-year-old Joliet Township resident Toyosi Bakare and to end his own life in Texas, that was only one part of the story, Joliet Patch has learned.

It turns out 23-year-old Nance used a rifle to slaughter most — though not all — of his seven relatives who lived in two houses in the 2200 block of West Acres Road, on Joliet's west side near the St. Joe's hospital campus. A source familiar with the neighborhood told Joliet Patch that Nance used the rifle to kill six family members, and he used a handgun for one of the killings.

The Joliet family members were buried at Woodlawn Cemetery:

• Christine Esters, 38, of Joliet, aunt of Romeo Nance
• Tameka Nance, 47, of Joliet, mother of Romeo Nance
• William Esters II, 35, of Joliet, uncle of Romeo Nance
• Joshua Nance, 31, of Joliet, brother of Romeo Nance
• Alexandria Nance, 20, sister of Romeo Nance
• 16-year-old Alonnah Nance, junior at Joliet West, sister of Romeo Nance
• 14-year-old Angel Nance, sister of Romeo Nance

Joliet Patch has also learned that at least one person in the neighborhood saw Romeo Nance running with his rifle in his hand between his family's two houses that Sunday afternoon, on Jan. 21, and people in the neighborhood did in fact hear multiple gunshots. However, nobody in the neighborhood called and notified the Joliet Police Department about what they saw or heard, the source revealed.

After the family was slain, police believe Nance carried out two subsequent random shootings that same Sunday afternoon, including the homicide at the Pheasant Run apartments along Route 53 of the 28-year-old man who came to Joliet three years ago from Nigeria.

The source familiar with the West Acres Road neighborhood told Patch that the 3-year-old son of Romeo Nance and Kyleigh Cleveland was inside one of the houses when Romeo Nance killed his family members. As for Cleveland, she was inside the ranch house where the first two murders happened, the source explained.

Eventually, Nance, their 3-year-old boy and his girlfriend drove away from the West Acres Road neighborhood where Nance's family members were killed, the source noted.

At some point afterward, Nance used the red Toyota Camry, registered to one of his murder victims, and Nance drove that car all the way to Texas, where a fugitive police task force with a helicopter tracked him down along the Interstate 35. With the police in hot pursuit, authorities said Nance pulled into a Chubby's gas station, ran from the car and shot himself in Natalia, Texas.

The rifle Nance used to kill his relatives was also recovered by authorities in Texas, Joliet Patch's source noted.

On Thursday morning, Nance's girlfriend appeared in Courtroom 405 of Will County Judge Dave Carlson. She and her Will County Public Defender entered not-guilty pleas for her three felony charges of obstruction of justice.

Prior to her grand jury indictment, Kyleigh Cleveland remained uncooperative toward Joliet police detectives, and she chose not to help them in their quest to track down Nance, whose whereabouts were still unknown back on Monday, Jan. 22, the source noted.

The neighborhood source said people remain hopeful that the Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow can increase her criminal charges, considering that she was present inside the house where at least two of Romeo Nance's family members were slain, and her car was used to transport Nance away from the scene of the crimes.

And there have been several cases in recent years in Joliet where Will County's prosecutors have filed murder charges against someone who did not actually fire the gun.

In 2021, the Will County State's Attorney Office charged Paola Diaz of Oneida Street with first-degree murder in the death of a Joliet teenager, Jwaun Jones, who was fatally shot in the backseat of a car just over the Cass Street Bridge on April 5, 2021. In that case, Diaz's boyfriend, Abraham Bibian, is also charged, and he was identified by Joliet police and prosecutors as the actual shooter.

According to court records, Diaz's role in the slaying is that she received Bibian's rifle that he used to shoot and kill the Joliet teenager and Diaz hid the rifle inside her bedroom.

Both Bibian and Diaz are now free after posting bond in their respective first-degree murder cases. Their cases have not gone to trial yet.

And there's the notorious Joliet double murders known as the Nightmare on Hickory Street crimes from 11 years ago.

Even though Bethany McKee did not commit the "Nightmare On Hickory Street" strangulation murders of Terrance Rankins and Eric Glover back in January 2013, the Shorewood native is serving a life sentence at the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Even though Josh Miner and Adam Landerman were the ones who strangled the Hickory Street murder victims, Rankins and Glover, McKee was also found guilty of first-degree murder under an accountability theory presented by the Will County State's Attorney's Office.

The house where the Nightmare on Hickory Street murders happened was owned by Alisa Massaro's father. Alisa Massaro and McKee had been best friends since they were little girls. Unlike McKee, Massaro pleaded guilty to a reduced felony charge, and she got out of prison in 2018, after only five years of incarceration.

Related Joliet Patch coverage:

Nightmare On Hickory Life Sentence 'Unconscionable': McKee's Lawyers

Joliet Murder Defendant Gets Her Bail Cut In Half By Judge Carlson

Romeo Nance's Girlfriend Hides Her Face Leaving Courthouse

Romeo Nance, Joliet Mass Murder Suspect, Dies In Texas: JPD