Will County Sheriff Forced to Release Pics of 'Person of Interest' in Missing Deputy Case

By Joseph Hosey

The Will County Sheriff was forced to release photos of a former auxiliary deputy named a person of interest in the 1990 disappearance of a real deputy.

Undersheriff Jerome Nudera had refused to release department ID photographs of former auxiliary Tony Marquez, claiming the pictures should be “considered ‘private information’ due to the ‘biometric identifiers’ they contain.”

The Illinois Attorney General’s Office told Nudera he was actually wrong about that and directed him to release the photographs.

No one from the sheriff’s department has yet explained why they wanted to shield Marquez, the person of interest in the disappearance of one of their own deputies, Robin Abrams.

Prior to her disappearance in October 1990, Abrams and Marquez, who was—and still is—a married man, carried on an alleged affair punctuated by the two exchanging allegations of harassment. Abrams’ sister, Jody Walsh, has accused Marquez of stalking Abrams.

In the midst of her turmoil with Marquez, the sheriff’s department fired Abrams. According to the website Missing Persons of America, Abrams was let go two weeks before her probationary period was to end. But she didn’t take it lying down.

“On Dec. 13, 1989, Robin filed a federal lawsuit against Marquez and seven other members of the sheriff’s department alleging wrongful termination and sexual harassment,” the site said.

Abrams vanished while the suit was still pending. She was 28.

Patch tried to ask Marquez about Abrams during a September 2012 visit to his Elwood home but he didn’t want to talk about her.

“Sorry sorry sorry,” Marquez said. “Zero.”

The investigation into Abrams’ disappearance was renewed two years ago after Bolingbrook cop Drew Peterson was convicted of killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio. Along with Abrams’ case, Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said he would again look into the disappearance of Plainfield mom Lisa Stebic and the mystery of Peterson’s missing fourth wife, Stacy Peterson.

“It’s in the hands of the state police,” said Charles B. Pelkie, the spokesman for the state’s attorney’s office.

“It’s being actively investigated and our office is assisting in the review of the case,” Pelkie said.

Walsh said she was not surprised when the sheriff’s department tried to withhold Marquez’s picture.

“They have been blocking every effort,” Walsh said of the sheriff’s department. She expressed hope that publishing Marquez’s picture might help develop information on her sister’s whereabouts.

“Why is his face not out there?” she said. “ If you know this man, if you know anything he may be hiding, maybe somebody will have the fortitude, the heart, to tell what they know.”

Walsh said she has never laid eyes on Marquez, either in the flesh or in a photograph.

“I have never seen a picture of that man, I had never seen him when my sister worked with him and dated him,” Walsh said. “If that picture gets printed, now I will be looking into the eyes of evil.”

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