IL IL - Starved Rock State Park Murders of three women, 4 Mar 1960

[Gunther Toody]

I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other, but as a counterpoint to this specific argument, see the current Rex Heuermann (LISK) threads. Part of what ties him to the victims are transfer hairs from his wife and daughter, who were out of town during (all?) of his verified murders.

The more I read of this case, the more information comes forth. The hair was one of several found in Murphy's gloved hand. It turns out that they were hot simple hairs that would have fallen in due course, they were hairs that contained a root and a follicle, which means they were pulled from someone's head, likely during a struggle.

Testing labs developed a DNA profile from the hair, which was not from Weger or anyone in his family. Genetic Genealogy determined they were from one of three brothers, who were local to Ottawa.

 

[Gunther Toody]

Police investigators determined that the rather rare 20 strand twine used to bind the Starved Rock murder victims was a match to twine used to bind the victim of an earlier unsolved rape case.

That rape victim picked Chester Weger out of a line up as the person who had raped her.

Wager was convicted of murdering Frances Murphy and sentenced to death. Because he had received the death penalty, Prosecutors decided to not charge Weger with the other two murders or the rape.

On appeal, he was given a re-trial in the Murphy case. Weger was again convicted, but because one of the twelve jurors refused to vote for the death penalty, he was sentenced to life without parole.

Whether Weger was involved in a prior rape or not is irrelevant, because in the Starved Rock case, there was no sexual assault. It was a staged crime scene. There was no evidence connecting Weger to the murders, only a confession that was likely given under duress, and which he immediately recanted.