Plainfield Jewel Murder-Suicide Victim Feared For Her Safety

PLAINFIELD, IL - Years of an abusive, loveless marriage took their toll on Elaine M. Zene. On April 3, 2004, the 51-year-old woman convinced one of her friends to give her a ride to the Will County Courthouse. That afternoon, she filled out the paperwork to get a protection order against her allegedly volatile husband, Raymond Zene. She was 51. He was a month shy of 59. Back then, she feared, he might kill her with one of his handguns.

On Saturday, they both died in what police are calling an apparent murder-suicide.

"He has hurt me in the past," Elaine stated in her 2004 order of protection. "He (threw) a coffee pot at me and cut my leg. He pushed me down in the snow. I fear for safety as well as my sanity. He does keep loaded guns in the home. He has a violent temper. I just can't take any more chances, no more threats, no more mental abuse. He took our marital car away from me. I have no transportation."

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On Saturday afternoon at the Jewel-Osco grocery store parking lot near 135th Street and Route 59 in Plainfield, Raymond Zene's 65-year-old wife, who lived in Woodridge, suffered multiple gunshot wounds, according to Will County Coroner Patrick O'Neil. Hours later, 72-year-old Raymond himself, of Plainfield, was found dead from a single gunshot wound in what's being treated as a suicide. A decade ago, he worked as director of the Cook County Sheriff's Department Internal Affairs Division, court records show.

A check of the Better Government Association online pension database shows that Raymond was collecting two public pensions, one from the Chicago Police Department and another from Cook County government. He began getting a Chicago Police pension in 1996 and also a Cook County pension starting in 2008. The pension database lists Raymond as having roughly 30 years experience with Chicago and having worked for 12 years for Cook County to begin collecting his second pension.

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In April 2016, a dozen years after Elaine obtained the protection order against Raymond, she filed for divorce. The Will County court calendar indicates the two were slated to appear before a judge on Halloween regarding their ongoing divorce proceedings. The two were both in court Oct. 17, accompanied by their hired attorneys.

Patch recently tracked down the Will County court records related to the protection order Elaine got against the husband she described as abusive and domineering back in 2004.

"Raymond has continually throughout most of our marriage been a very controlling man. He abused me mentally — he calls me names such as (expletive) (expletive) mental patient, lazy ass. I am very afraid of him. I am on medication and have been under doctors care for sometime now. I have seen counselors, psychiatrists and have been under such duress and emotional strain."

On April 3, 2004, Elaine wrote the court that she could think of nowhere else to turn to escape the long-standing pattern of domestic abuse: "I came here today for help. I feel like this man is going to cause me to have a nervous breakdown. If I don't go by his rules, he constantly says, I won't have this. This isn't working — always makes me feel threatened. He plays games. He takes fits, he drinks and becomes more abusive."

She later returned to the Will County Courthouse, notifying the court that "I came to seek a protection order from my husband yesterday but I couldn't stay since my ride had to leave to pick up her children."

When Elaine returned home that April 3, 2004, Raymond was irate.

"I went home around 3:30 or so, my husband started shouting and threatening me again. He said he hated my guts and if I touched any of his money in his and (my) checking account, I would have to deal with it. We continued to argue, he violently screamed that he would shoot myself and my daughter if I pushed him too far," she wrote the court.

In the protection order that she told her husband that she would take up the matter with the Will County judicial system "if he continually harasses and threatens me."

"I am very afraid he would do this. He said no one will believe me since he is ..."

Elaine decided to scratch out the very next word that she wrote in the order of protection regarding her husband who had worked for Cook County law enforcement.

She then tried to summon the courage to rewrite the sentence.

"He is ..."

This time, though, Elaine left the sentence unfinished.

Image via Joliet Patch Editor John Ferak