Gunman Sent 'Disturbing Text' After Plainfield Shooting: Cops

PLAINFIELD, IL — Minutes after allegedly gunning down his estranged wife, Raymond Zene sent a "disturbing text" to a relative, prompting Plainfield police to conduct a welfare check on the former Chicago cop's Walnut Circle home. Elaine Zene, 65, was rushed to a Bolingbrook hospital with multiple gunshot wounds after being shot in the parking lot of the Jewel-Osco near Route 59 and 135th Street just after 12:30 p.m. Saturday. She had been seeking a divorce, and the former couple was due to appear in Will County court on Halloween.

Plainfield Police Chief John Konopek said Elaine Zene was on her way to work at Jewel-Osco when she was shot while walking through the parking lot. She had moved to Woodridge in April after splitting with her husband, and was working part time for a company called Team Enterprises.

Police responded to 911 calls reporting a woman shot in the grocery store parking lot at around 12:33 p.m. One officer helped civilians who were already performing CPR on Elaine Zene as other officers secured the scene, spoke with witnesses and searched for the shooter, police said. Witnesses told police the shooter was an older white male driving a silver Chevrolet with out-of-state license plates.

Just minutes before Elaine Zene was pronounced dead at 1:08 p.m., officers were dispatched to Raymond Zene's home in the 24100 block of Walnut Circle after one of his relatives received the alarming text. Police did not disclose what the text said.

Konopek said as officers arrived on the scene and attempted to make contact with Raymond Zene, they heard a single gunshot inside the closed garage.

At that point, "Our concern is to make sure the individual is not firing at us or anybody else," Konopek said, adding officers set up a perimeter to make sure Raymond Zene could not flee into the neighborhood and put other residents at risk. Police asked nearby residents to stay in their homes and called in the Joliet Police Department’s Special Operations Squad (SOS) and several other agencies.

Konopek said the Joliet squad took over tactical operations on Walnut Circle and continued trying to make contact with Raymond Zene. "After repeated attempts by them with no success, the decision was made to breach the garage door," Konopek added.

Konopek said neighbors were evacuated before the garage was breached and a police robot equipped with cameras was sent inside just after 4 p.m. — nearly three hours after police arrived at the home. The cameras showed Raymond Zene, 72, sitting unresponsive in a vehicle with out-of-state plates. Konopek said Zene was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. The car, it turned out, was a rental vehicle, according to police.

Watch Joliet's SOS breach Raymond Zene's garage door on Walnut Circle:

Court records show that Elaine Zene had filed for divorce once before, in 2004. That same year, she twice filed for orders of protection from Raymond Zene, saying she was afraid of her husband, who also worked as an assistant director for the Cook County Sheriff's Department before retiring in 2008. He was drawing two pensions, one from Cook County and one from the Chicago Police Department, when he died.

"I fear for safety as well as my sanity," Elaine Zene wrote in 2004, adding that her husband took away her car and forbid her from accessing their bank accounts. "He does keep loaded guns in the home. He has a violent temper." She added, "He violently screamed that he would shoot myself and my daughter if I pushed him too far ... I am very afraid he would do this."

In early 2005, Elaine Zene withdrew her petition for divorce. She again filed for divorce in April 2016 and moved out of the home she shared with her husband. Her daughter, Woodridge resident Michele Caruso, told the Herald-News she feared something like this would happen to her mother.

“I just knew he would do something like this one day," she told the paper, saying Raymond Zene would display his guns around the home, "just to intimidate her, I think."

Konopek said he didn't know whether Plainfield police ever responded to calls from the couple's Hunt Club Lane home or to the Walnut Circle home where Raymond Zene moved after they separated. "That's part of our investigation," Konopek said. "We're checking our records and checking with other agencies."

Konopek said the Plainfield Police Investigations Unit executed a search warrant at the Walnut Circle home. The homicide and suicide investigations remain under investigation, he said.

"Our hearts go out to the families and witnesses involved in this tragic incident," Plainfield police said on Facebook.

Photos show the scene as it unfolded Saturday on Walnut Circle/Images and video via Patch reader Nick V