Romeoville Hammer Man Tells of Night Cops Found His Dead Wife

A Romeoville man testified about the night he was lounging on his couch when the cops showed up and found his dead wife on the floor.

John Sadler, 71, said he saw the police coming and got up to answer his door shortly before midnight on July 26, 2010.

“I heard people coming up the walkway and I saw a flashlight … a beam of light,” Sadler said.

“I stood up to see who it was,” he said. “I saw three people with a dog … police … I saw their guns.”

The dog was a cadaver dog and it alerted the cops to somebody dead inside the house, said Romeoville Police Detective Kelley Henson. But Henson, who went to Sadler’s home that night with other officers to ask him about his missing wife, Carol Sadler, didn’t really need a cadaver dog, as she said she had no problem with smelling the decomposing body just inside of the door.

John Sadler testified in Will County court Monday during a hearing to determine whether his statements to police can be used against him. John Sadler claimed he was never told of his right to remain silent or ask for an attorney. Henson said she did advise John Sadler of his rights. Two other police officers corroborated Henson’s account.

Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak ruled that John Sadler’s words can be used by prosecutors when the Romeoville man goes to trial.

John Sadler, a retired accountant, at first faced murder charges when police found his wife’s 10-day-old corpse of his wife inside their Benzie Circle home. He was jailed soon after the grisly discovery and held on a $3 million bond.

But even though he reportedly admitted to police that he hit his 66-year-old wife in the head with a hammer, prosecutors reduced the charges after an autopsy revealed Carol Sadler actually died of a heart attack and not her head wound. She apparently suffered the heart attack mere moments before her husband bludgeoned her with the hammer.

John Sadler’s bond was reduced to $300,000. He promptly posted it and was released from custody.

Sadler faces up to seven years in prison if found guilty.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Bertani-Tomczak ruled out questions about what John Sadler supposedly told the police the night he was arrested. Prosecutor Frank Byers did ask John Sadler if he remembered at what point the police handcuffed him and took him into custody.

“After I told them my wife was on the floor,” John Sadler said.

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