Search For Wendy Gessing's Body Leads To Rockdale: Police

ROCKDALE, IL — More than a year and a half has passed since Wendy Gessing, the long-time girlfriend of Crest Hill Pizzas By Marchelloni owner Scott Harris, vanished after leaving the pizza parlor in the middle of her Saturday evening work shift, and the Crest Hill Police Department has not stopped searching for her body.

On Dec. 13-14, the Crest Hill Police Department teamed up with the Rockdale Police Department and the Will County Sheriff's Office to conduct an extensive search in Rockdale along both sides of Route 6.

Sheriff's investigators also brought along drones to assist with the search attempts to find Gessing, who was 50 years old when she went missing on the night of June 12, 2021.

Her cell phone was discovered along Taylor Road in Romeoville, and her vehicle was discovered on Joliet's near west side, toward the dead-end stretch of Buell Avenue, near Western Avenue.

During Wednesday's phone interview, Crest Hill Police Chief Ed Clark said he did not want to divulge what prompted investigators to head to Rockdale to conduct the extensive search near the Brandon Road Locks.

Clark said that Rockdale is one of many locations in the Will County area that Crest Hill police have now searched in hopes of finding Gessing's body.

Clark pointed out that police also searched portions of northern Indiana, back in 2021, in hopes of finding Gessing, but the Indiana searches were not successful.

Rockdale Police Chief Robert Dykstra, who helped with last month's search, said about 25 law enforcement officials participated in the Rockdale search for Gessing.

He said several animal bones were found along the largely wooded areas on both sides of Route 6, but police found no evidence indicating Gessing was dumped along Route 6, just south of Joliet.

He said the first-day's police search went from Larkin Avenue all the way to Brandon Road, and it covered both sides of Route 6. On the second day, Rockdale police searched west of Larkin Avenue along Route 6, over toward the Johns Manville manufacturing company.

Given how extensive the Dec. 13-14 searches were, Dykstra said he highly doubts Gessing's body was left off Route 6 in the Rockdale area.

Overall, it was a good decision to search the area, given the vast amount of wooded area along the highway, Rockdale's chief said.

After all, last February, the skeletal remains of 38-year-old Pam Vincent, a missing Joliet homeless woman who vanished in August 2015, were discovered in a wooded area off Patterson Road in Joliet Township.

Will County Sheriff's officials later said there were no signs of murder in connection with the analysis of Vincent's remains by forensic anthropologists.

Crest Hill police have not announced any theory as to how Gessing may have died.

Police have also not announced any suspects in her disappearance.

She had lived with Harris for several years at a house on Hosmer Lane.

During multiple interviews with Patch in 2021 and 2022, Harris said he did not work the evening shift at the Pizzas By Marchelloni restaurant when his girlfriend disappeared. That night, he said he drove to the Lockport Moose Lodge to socialize with friends at the club.

Crest Hill's police chief said that Harris remains cooperative and helpful with his lead investigator, Conor Sweeney, on the case.

In Wednesday's interview, Clark urged people to continue to call the Crest Hill Police Department's investigations unit at 815-741-5111 with any leads into Gessing's disappearance.

"We need information, we're always needing information in investigations," Clark stressed.

Dykstra, the Rockdale chief, said that often in police investigations, a lead that appears promising turns out to be nothing, and a tip that someone considers to be nothing, turns out to be something significant that leads to a significant breakthrough in solving the mystery.

In the disappearance of Gessing, "there's got to be someone who knows something," Dykstra said Wednesday. "You would assume that people don't vanish into thin air."

As far as finding Gessing, "We'll never give up," Crest Hill's police chief noted.

More Joliet Patch Wendy Gessing coverage:

• Wendy Gessing's Family Can't Find Closure 16 Months After She Vanished
• Wendy Gessing's Boyfriend: 'I Hope It's Not A Homicide'
• Wendy Gessing Case A 'Very Active Investigation': Crest Hill PD
• Wendy Gessing Missing 6 Months: Crest Hill Police Have No Updates
• Criminal Charges Dropped Against Crest Hill's Joshua Gessing