Conviction Upheld For Woman Who Killed Son, Little Girl

NAPERVILLE, IL — An appellate court has affirmed the conviction of a former Naperville woman convicted of fatally stabbing her 7-year-old son, Justin, and Olivia Dworakowski, a 5-year-old girl she was babysitting, along with two family dogs in 2012.

Elzbieta Plackowska, 48, was found guilty of the killings in 2017 despite presenting an insanity defense during the trial. She was sentenced to natural life in prison.

According to DuPage County State's Attorney's Office, on Oct. 30, 2012, Plackowska put both children to bed at the Dworakowski family's townhome, but armed herself with a kitchen knife after the children started jumping on the bed. Plackowska then stabbed her son and the girl to death before killing two dogs.

Plackowsk was babysitting 5-year-old Olivia while the girl's mother, a nurse, worked a night shift. Dworakowski's mother reportedly called police after she arrived home and was unable to get inside. At a press conference in the days after the children's murders, Naperville Police Chief Robert Marshall said the scene inside the Quin Court townhome was the most gruesome he'd witnessed in his career.

Plackowska was arrested after going to another Naperville home, where her adult son was staying. Authorities said she also called her church and left a message saying she had "done something bad" and needed help.

Plackowska, a native of Poland, admitted to her actions, but appealed the 2017 conviction claiming she did not have the capacity to understand the criminality of what she did on Oct. 30, 2012.

The appellate court determined that "we cannot say that the opposite conclusion — that the defendant was insane at the time of the offenses — was clearly evident." They took into consideration the fact that Plackowska discarded her phone, put the knife in a garbage disposal and made up a story about an intruder after the murders.

DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement, "I would like to thank the Appellate Court for their thorough analysis of the State’s case against Elzbieta Plackowska and her unfounded claim of insanity as an attempt to avoid spending the rest of her life behind bars. The murder of these two innocent children shook the entire community to its core, the reverberations of which can still be felt today. The Appellate Court’s decision confirms that there never was, nor should there ever be, any doubt whatsoever that Elzbieta Plackowska knew exactly what she was doing when she brutally murdered Justin and Olivia.”