IL IL - Christine Dewitt, 15, Dolton, 28 May 1974

[peters]

Busy weekend...Wanted to relay some research hints I got at the library Friday. My local library originally got a PROQUEST subscription at the request of a customer. It is a couple of hundred dollars per year, which is high for an individual but not a major expenditure for even a small town library. My librarian said she was blown away by the advantages over microfilm. For the subscription price, you get access to the Washington Post, NY and LA Times, Atlanta Constitution, and Chicago Trib from their inception to about 1990. But the awesome feature is that you are not dependent on old fashioned hit or miss manual indexes to find articles. Rather, the PROQUEST search function digitally searches every word ever printed in the paper(s) you select. For example, my search on "DeWitt" and "Dolton" took .0376 seconds to read 146 years of the Trib and list the 3 articles on her case. Then it's just a click of the mouse to read a clean .pdf of each article.

It could be that your local library would agree to such a request---it's way cheaper than the initial costs of these papers on microfilm. PROQUEST has a website at http://www.proquest.com that might help convince them.

I wanted to say also that the loose ends you noted had me recheck the Christine DeWitt articles to make sure I'd summarized them accurately. The details I noted (Black-over-white car with no plates, 3 men, South Holland olice pursuit north into Southside Chicago) are what was printed in the Trib.

Another loose end is that LE apparently tied her death to the Forest Preserve and asked the rangers to search for her clothes. But, if she had been killed in the Preserve, why would her body have ended up at Exchange and Memorial, which at least sounds like a more conspicuous spot?

 

[daga]

Another loose end is that LE apparently tied her death to the Forest Preserve and asked the rangers to search for her clothes. But, if she had been killed in the Preserve, why would her body have ended up at Exchange and Memorial, which at least sounds like a more conspicuous spot?

I too have been very busy the last few days. I thank you so much for the information you've provided. I'm definitely going to check the library about proquest! What an amazing service!
I never remember that LE tied her death to the forest preserve, but it does make sense. It bothers me to know that not only me but probably most of my friends knew the person/people who murdered her, maybe not by name, but certainly by sight if they used the forest preserves as a hangout.
Because it had become such a popular hangout in the 1970s, one of the local Chicago news stations did a piece on it and had filmed there while the place was full of people. I wonder if LE ever reviewed that footage to see if they could find the car. I doubt the footage still exists though.

 

[peters]

Finally a more relaxed time of year!

I talked with a friend who makes documentary films about the possibility of locating old news footage. It is an open call on whether the glass is half-empty or half-full. Back in the early 1970s, videotape was just beginning to be used for news footage, and it did not replace film until the early 1980s. This is a plus because the early-generation video cartridges were expensive and were reused innumerable times. Film, however, takes up a lot of storage space. It is possible that the station that produced the report donated its film library to an archives for a tax deduction. My friend suggests that this is definitely worth an email to each Chicago station. I don't know if you have an estimated date for the broadcast, but the Wampum Woods were much in the news because of a police crackdown that peaked in August, 1974.

An orange Camaro would clearly stand out, although a black over white car might be more subtle.

Interestingly, I found a fourth article on Ms. DeWitt that did not show up in my original search. Dated July 7, 1974, it discusses a crackdown on partying at Wampum and states that Ms. DeWitt was last seen at a party in the preserve. This contradicts the earlier articles, but additional facts may have come out over the month since her death.

That is a spooky thought that her murderer might have been standing there in plain sight all the time!

 

[daga]

A few years ago I had contacted the local Chicago stations to see if the footage could be located, and they told me that without a date, it'd be impossible to know, and I just don't have a date. I even when to the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago to do a search in their archives, but nothing came up.
The funny thing is that I wasn't putting two and two together, as far as Chris DeWitt and the vehicles parked at Wampum, but I had discussed it with a friend who had never seen it when it played on the news originally and I thought there was a possibility that I could get a copy of it.
I've even done image searches online for Wampum/Cook County Forest Preserve District, and nothing shows up from the 1970s, which is surprising, because for all the thousands of teenagers who went there daily, it's hard to believe that no photographs exist from that time.

 

[peters]

I'm sure there are pictures out there. I do a lot of historic presrvation research on old buildings and run into this problem often. The pictures are in shoeboxes and family albums. They're hard to locate but they often do pop up if you talk to the right person...My dad was a newspaper editor and the first thing he did every day was to read the competing papers so that he could make sure they didn't have a story his paper had missed. Maybe the first place to start looking for a date is the Trib, in the expectation that there will be a knot of media attention around the same time. I'll try a couple searches this evening....

 

[dark_shadows]

Tomorrow I'll try to run by the library at lunch and verify the car and direction of pursuit info. I'll also search that other name you found.

Hello Peters,
I want you to know that I am touched by this statement.
You not only searched the web to help a fellow Websleuther,you also go beyond that and use your lunch break to go somewhere to research.Thank-you.
Respectfully,
dark_shadows

 

[daga]

I too am touched. I'm also incredibly impressed, because as hard as I've been looking, I've been coming up with nothing.

 

[peters]

My wife and I are having a race to see who can lose 5 pounds fastest and the library doesn't allow so much as a saltine....I hope to go by on Thursday for more searching!

 

[daga]

My wife and I are having a race to see who can lose 5 pounds fastest and the library doesn't allow so much as a saltine....I hope to go by on Thursday for more searching!

Honest to goodness, while reading this, I have a mouth full of candy. :doh:

 

[pittsburghgirl]

Just a note urging you not to discount law enforcement. I am interested in a local cold case from 1962 and the head of the missing person's bureau at that time has long been haunted by the case. She has been retired for a long while, but is still interviewed by the local paper about the case from time to time.

The good ones never lose interest.

 

[daga]

There is a local reporter who is doing a series on cold cases in the south Chicago suburbs and I just got off the phone with him a little while ago. He's very interested in this case, and would like to have some correspondence with the person who posts here under the username of Peters to discuss with him the information he/she was able to find. I did send a pm to Peters, but I'm also posting to this forum in case Peters doesn't see the pm.
The reporter's contact info:
Hi...you were a great help in finding out information about a case that I had posted about in the cold case forum about Chris Dewitt. I sent an email to a reporter who would like to speak with you about it. He'd like to know if you still have copies of the newspaper articles. He's been doing a series on cold case files here in the Chicago suburbs, and he's very interested in this case.
His contact info is:
Patrick Ferrell
Staff Reporter/Special Projects Reporter
Star Newspapers/Sun Times News Group
6901 W. 159th St.
Tinley Park, IL 60477 direct (708)802-8832
fax (708)802-8088
pferrell@starnewspapers.com
www.starnewspapers.com
He (Patrick Ferrell the reporter) also just signed up for WS, so he may be posting. It can only help to have a reporter who is interested in cold cases reading WS! He seemed like a pretty nice guy too.

 

[HeartofTexas]

Daga, I'm a "johnny-come-lately" on this case but have certainly found it quite intriguing since reading all 51 posts today. And I agree that Peters deserves a lot of congratulations for the "above-and-beyond" way he's pursued the articles on it. I'll continue to follow this case and wish you all luck in trying to link some of these murders together.

If any of you have extra time on your hands (ha!), please drop by the Rose Cole case here in Cold Cases. She went missing in 1973 after running away from Synanon in California, at the age of 16. She's never been heard from since early 1973. We need all of the good sleuthing we can get with Rose's case!

 

[Patrick Ferrell]

Police look at new info in 1974 murder of teen



Sunday, June 25, 2006





By Patrick Ferrell, The Star

Christine DeWitt was dead only 15 minutes when police found her body, but 32 years later, the case remains unsolved.

The closest police may have come to solving it was in 1974 when they sought a black-over-white car without license plates. Police chased the car into Chicago the night of the murder, but lost it on the South Side.

Police now seem closer to finding DeWitt's killer, but they're reluctant to talk about it.

DeWitt, a 14-year-old from Dolton, was just nearing the end of her freshman year at Thornridge High School. It was May 26, and DeWitt went to Wampum Woods Forest Preserve after school with a friend.

As the two were leaving, DeWitt, who was wearing blue jeans and a white blouse, saw her boyfriend and promised to meet him at the preserve later. She went home, then later telephoned her friend at about 6 p.m.

"Chris said she wanted to go back to Wampum, and I said I didn't want to go. So Chris said, 'I'll go alone,' " the friend was quoted as saying in media reports from the time.

Others told police they saw DeWitt at the forest preserve as late as 9 p.m. By 12:15 a.m. DeWitt's nude and mutilated body was found near a subdivision being built at Exchange Avenue and Memorial Drive in Calumet City.

She still wore a gold ring and flower-shaped necklace, according to media reports.

She was stabbed at least 15 times and her throat was cut, almost decapitating her. Police said at the time the weapon was likely a large hunting knife.

The autopsy report showed DeWitt had morphine in her body, and criminal testing later showed she had been sexually assaulted. Traces of blood also were found on her fingernails, the autopsy report shows.

The then-Calumet City police chief called it "the hardest and most horrible case" he had ever worked.

The headlines, and the ensuing police gossip, so intrigued Sandra Tooley, a 27-year-old secretary in the mayor's office, that she later used the crime as a stepping stone to write "Restless Spirit," a mystery novel.

"She was 14. How somebody could do that to somebody so young was just frightening and appalling," Tooley, now a northwest Indiana resident, said. "I thought it would make a great plot idea. In real life, there wasn't a resolution.

"In my book, I include a twist: The killer is found."

After Tooley's book was released in 2002, she was contacted by Sue, a woman who was a year ahead of DeWitt at Thornridge.

DeWitt was just a casual acquaintance, but Sue never forgot the murder.

Sue, who did not want her last name used, said she was almost abducted by a man in Dolton that same summer and wrote about the account recently on an online message board about cold cases.

"I remember the car (a large white car), and I remember what the man looked like. I've always wondered if there were any witnesses or anything because maybe there was a connection," she wrote.

Sue, who also now lives in northwest Indiana, never told her parents or anybody else about the incident because she didn't want to get in trouble for approaching a stranger's car.

Sue and others theorize that many didn't come forward with information about the night DeWitt was murdered because they didn't want to get in trouble for the parties at Wampum.

There's "a sense of guilt that I didn't say anything. It's always been in the back of my mind," Sue said.

DeWitt still has family living in the area. One of her brothers for whom The Star was able to get a phone number did not respond to requests to be interviewed. Her boyfriend at the time of her murder also reportedly lives in the area, but he could not be contacted.

DeWitt's case is being worked by Cook County's cold case unit. The unit only agrees to take a case if there's a suspect it can work toward charging.

A police official said a man has come forward who may have more information about the murder, and police were trying to determine whether the man was credible.

Both Calumet City police and county investigators declined repeated requests to be interviewed further.

Patrick Ferrell may be reached at pferrell@starnewspapers.com or (708) 802-8832.

 

[Azlaw]

awesome article, please keep us posted on any updates.

 

[daga]

Wow Patrick, AWESOME article! I hope this will help to bring closure to this case.
I'd also like to thank you for understanding my fears and not using my last name. I appreciate it more than you know!

 

[jonimoni]

I was a year behind this young woman in Jr High and have never forgotten her. During the last 30+ years I too have often wondered if they had ever caught her murderer. This event was life changing in our community, it ended the freedom of childhood for many of us, the safe feeling we all shared. I wish that this could be followed up using new technology, the fact that the animal who did this is still walking around free is very disturbing.

 

[ttrachel04]

wow ... i just read all of the posts and this is really an amazing thread ...

did they ever find the killer? it really sounded like they were closing in.

daga and peters -- any news??

 

[kpred]

I was in the same class as Christina, but I really didn't know her too well. I was very introverted and pretty much kept to myself. I had friends in high school, but most of them were from the neighborhood where I grew up (Burnham). I remember thinking Christina was very attractive, but I was a little intimidated by pretty girls at that time in my life, so I would never have tried talking to her. She also hung with a little different crowd than I did. There was nothing wrong with that, I just knew we were different and so I assumed she would never want anything to do with me. But one day, I think it was Social Studies, she started talking to me, and while I was nervous she really put me at ease, she was very nice to me. Afterwords, when I would see her in the hall I would wave to her and say hi. We never really had another conversation after that day in Social Studies, but it didn't matter. My perception of her had changed and I knew that I liked her and would never think badly of her. The night after she was found murdered I was listening to the radio as I went to sleep. When the news came on and they announced that she had been murdered I was shocked and saddened. I felt so bad about it, she was all I could think about for days. How could someone want to hurt anybody that seemed so kind and sincere. I was very naive then, I know now the world is sometimes a very dangerous place, and more times that I care to think about, bad things happen to good people. Over the years I have thought about Christina, and each time I think about her I'm a little older and I feel sad that she never got to be 21, 31, 41, or even 51 like I am now. I wish she would have had the chance to be an adult, to get married if she wanted to, to have children if she wanted to, I still get choked up when I think of the horrible thing that happened to the girl that treated me so nicely on that day in Social Studies. She never deserved such a fate, she should have been here with us now, looking back on a life well lived. I know it may seem silly, but I will never forget Christina as long as I live. She deserves to be remembered by all those who knew her. God Bless you Christina.

 

[Chris Young]

I never knew Chris, but I am close to her family. I realize this response is coming much later than the general discussion, but I thought I would put my two cents in. I hope it helps.

Chris' mother passed away in the late '80s (maybe early '90s). To be honest, it took about ten years before I even heard of her. She was never mentioned. I suppose it was just too hard on the family.

If you feel that you have information that may assist in reopening the investigation again, I would say bring it up, although the family members will not want to be contacted directly. They are aware of the 2006(?) article written about the case, but nothing more has been mentioned (to the best of my knowledge).

It was a terrible thing that happened to her, and I'm sure the family would love nothing more than closure. If any information is helpful, though, the police will contact the family (if necessary). Otherwise, I would just let them be.

 

[Claudette]

My mom is from Cal City but is a bit older than those on here (born in mid-50s, so in 69', '70 she was 15). There was a guy in town that had a convertible and would drive around without a shirt on. He pulled up next to my mom and a friend of hers once when they were about to cross the street (so they could see in the car) and he had nothing on! Just thought I would share this - I don't think he was the same guy as the original poster mentioned, I believe that exhibitionists are typically non-violent right, are they known to escalate in violence at all?