Records in Valerie Percy Murder Case Will Remain Sealed: Judge

KENILWORTH, IL - Police records in the now more than half-century old murder case of Valerie Percy in Kenilworth will remain sealed after a Cook County judge ruled this week that releasing the records would “jeopardize” what is still an active case.

Percy, daughter of Charles Percy - the longtime United States Senator from Illinois - was beaten and stabbed in her bed as she slept in a Kenilworth mansion owned by the family on Sept. 18, 1966.

According to a Chicago Tribune report, Judge Anna Helen Demacopoulos said her court is “convinced beyond any doubt this is an ongoing, active investigation.” The release of records including crime-scene and autopsy photos and the toxicology report would “thwart the efforts” of authorities.

In September, the judge ruled a memo summarizing the thousands of pages of records be released after a lawsuit was filed by a New York attorney John Q. Kelly, a native of Glencoe, who claimed that it is not reasonable to consider the investigation open after more than 50 years.

The memo that was released, however, was heavily redacted and offered little to no new information about the case, NBC Chicago reported at the time.

Related: Judge Asks to See Records in Valerie Percy Murder Case

An attorney for Kelly says an appeal of the decision to keep the records closed is likely.

“The law is on our favor,” Matthew Topic said.

Village and police officials have been adamant that the case is open and have fought the lawsuit.

Kelly’s lawsuit was initiated after a FOIA request for some of the records involved in the case was denied.

Valerie Percy was murdered just weeks before her father was elected to the U.S. Senate, a body for which he would serve on for 18 years. He died in 2011, and the murder of his daughter remains as one of Chicagoland’s most notorious mysteries.

The investigation was handed to the Illinois State Police shortly after the crime occurred because of Kenilworth’s inexperience in handling such cases, but the case was handed back to the village’s police department in 2002.