GUILTY IL - Holly Cassano, 22, stabbed to death, Mahomet, 2 November 2009 *Arrest*

UdbCrzy2

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The police are releasing new details in an attempted search for her killer.
She was stabbed over 60-times in her home on Nov. 1, 2009.

---snip---

Based on the FBI profile and their own examination of the evidence, investigators said people should try to recall a white male, possibly a teenager, who may have expressed some sexual interest in Holly Cassano and sustained cuts to his hands or arms around Nov. 2 that would have required medical attention.

They believe the suspect was "acquainted" with the mobile home park where the victim lived, but did not necessarily live there. They suggest the attacker could be a resident of a nearby community, including Fisher, Bondville or Seymour.

Based on profiles of similar attacks in other areas of the country, they said the "probability" is that Cassano was specifically targeted for this assault, that her attacker may have been watching her for some period of time and that his motivation was sexual.

Cassano was sexually assaulted after she was killed, and investigators said the assailant was in such a frenzy that he did not tend to his own wounds, which probably were caused when his hand slid over the hilt of a kitchen-type knife onto the blade, until afterward.

"Our suspect was wounded in the attack," said Ogle, who described blood drips "the size of half dollars," some of which formed "pools of blood."

Authorities also speculate that the attacker left the area afterward, providing a plausible explanation for his sudden absence. Further, because they have yet to find a DNA match on file with law enforcement, Ogle said he suspects it "could very well be a teen because there is no record of DNA."

---snip---

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/co...02-20/new-details-released-search-killer.html


I hope they can find this suspect, I really hate to think someone has gotten away with murder and this one is so brutal.
 
Thank you so much for posting this UdbCrzy2. Since this case is from November of 2009 I am going to move it up to the crimes in the news forum. I think it will get more attention there and fits better there versus here in the Cold Case forum which houses much older cases.

Prayers this information released by LE pushes this case forward. No doubt whomever is responsible for such a heinious crime needs to be off the streets and brought to justice asap.

And prayers for Holly's family and friends. My heart just broke reading about this crime.
 
Thank you so much for posting this UdbCrzy2. Since this case is from November of 2009 I am going to move it up to the crimes in the news forum. I think it will get more attention there and fits better there versus here in the Cold Case forum which houses much older cases.

Prayers this information released by LE pushes this case forward. No doubt whomever is responsible for such a heinious crime needs to be off the streets and brought to justice asap.

And prayers for Holly's family and friends. My heart just broke reading about this crime.

BBM - Yes! Really sad!

Something I've wondered about (OT a bit) - I've seen on the many ID shows I look at where DNA is entered into the CODIS system. Is there a similar data base (something Google like) into which the MO's of crimes like Holly's can be entered into? It appears who ever did this horrible crime fled the area since crazy killers like this always (often?) repeat their crimes. But how would LE be able to search for something similar?
If a system does not exist to enter and search, perhaps Google would do it?
 
From November 2014:

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/lo...aying-sheriffs-office-turns-fresh-set-eyes.ht

It's been five years since Holly Cassano transformed from single working mother, daughter and sister into crime victim. The attractive 22-year-old Mahomet woman was found dead in her own home, a victim of incomprehensible violence...

Toni Cassano is the one who discovered her daughter about 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2009, on the floor of her mobile home in the Candlewood Estates Park in Mahomet. The sight of her lifeless child, stabbed repeatedly, was indelibly seared into her mind and became the fodder for counseling over the years...
 
There's a small update in the case that's been on local news for the past couple of days (this is a local case for me). Brief synopsis: police are reporting that DNA analysis suggests that the perpetrator might be a male of Hispanic descent.

http://www.news-gazette.com/nicole-lafond/2015-09-22/cassano-investigation-gets-new-spark.html
A private lab hired by the sheriff's office last fall to do testing on DNA recovered at the crime scene shared results that "statistically suggest" the suspect is likely a male with some Hispanic, Native American or Central or South American heritage, Lt. Curt Apperson said. [paragraph 3]

http://www.wandtv.com/story/30084111/cold-case-warms-up-with-break-in-2009-murder

Back in December of 2014 an investigator and a lieutenant with the department spent 45 days working on the case. Finally in September of 2015, there has been a break in the case that Sheriff Dan Walsh said he hopes will lead to an arrest.

Forensics have gotten more sophisticated. The crime department sent DNA to a private lab in Salt Lake City for another analysis.

"We recovered evidence that we are fairly certain is from the suspect," Sheriff Walsh told WAND. "Evidence that we sent to them belonged to someone with at least some Hispanic in their blood line or in their genetics."

Sheriff Walsh also said, recent tips have led to one old suspect and the department brought in three new people. He would not elaborate on who the old suspect is and who the other individuals are.

Although, some are connected "to her family, her place of employment or the area where she lived," Sheriff Walsh said.

Four DNA samples went out recently and two came back negative. Investigators are now waiting on the other two results. [from middle of article]

The jury's not in on "Ancestry" DNA tests, and expert opinions about the reliability of such tests are mixed, at best. So I worry a little about this maybe starting a bit of a witch hunt. But it sounds like maybe this will spur some new tips, and hopefully that will lead to something.
 
Also, this article has nothing to do with the Cassano case (athough it is briefly mentioned in the article), but it does show that there have been some other shady doings in the trailer park:

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-07-04/updated-meth-explosion-sends-one-man-hospital.html

I wonder if maybe the Cassano murderer was in the area for associated criminal and/or meth shenanigans, but was actually from out-of-state (mention of Indiana license plates in the article above), and maybe that's why they haven't had any luck tracking him down yet? (Although my initial thought is that maybe Holly's killer was a transient farm worker in the area to work the harvest season, and he moved on soon after.)
 
New clues in Cassano murder case on the 6th anniversary of her death
Detectives remain committed to finding the killer.

"We gained another lead this weekend," said Lt. Curt Apperson, of the Champaign County Sheriff's Department."And we came in yesterday, investigators came in yesterday, on a Sunday, on their day off, to follow up on that lead."

They're continuing to follow up on this new lead, while awaiting results on DNA samples they sent for testing.

They're cautiously optimistic that these developments could help them close the case.

"Information was presented to us six years later. And now we're going to have to go back and find this person. That's what's frustrating like if we had known this then, it may be a different story," said Apperson.
http://www.wandtv.com/story/3041454...o-murder-case-on-6th-anniversary-of-her-death

Also, a short article on how Holly was remembered today, on the anniversary of her murder: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-11-02/updated-i-just-miss-her.html
 
Cassano investigators: "Far from a cold case"

http://www.illinoishomepage.net/news/local-news/cassano-investigators-far-from-a-cold-case

The 20-year old was stabbed more than 60-times in a Mahomet trailer. Wednesday is the seventh anniversary of her death and the murderer has not been brought to justice.

Police say it's still very much an open investigation and they continue getting tips about the case. They are asking for any bit of information they can get.

Deputy Chief Allen Jones says it's not uncommon to get calls about the case.

"We actually received a tip today on the case. We're anxious, both for the family as well as to bring some justice to this case, and any tips that we get, kind of give us an air of excitement that maybe, that's just the one piece that we need to get over the hump."

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2016-11-01/ill-never-stop-waiting.html

Toni Cassano hasn't turned off her phone in seven years.

Since the day daughter Holly was brutally murdered in her Mahomet home, her mother doesn't go anywhere without her cell. She's still waiting for that call from Champaign County sheriff investigators saying "We got them."

"I'll never stop waiting," she said Monday, two days before the seventh anniversary of her daughter's death.

Like every year, Toni Cassano is planning a memorial ceremony on Nov. 2, to give loved ones the chance to remember Holly, but also to keep her spirit — and the investigation — alive.
 
Hello All,

I have recently taken an interest in this case and just had some thoughts I wanted to throw out there. I am not a professional, nor do I have any experience in profiling. These are just thoughts that I had when looking into all of the basic resources available on the case (newspaper and online articles, etc.). I am just hoping that my line of thought might be helpful in any way.

I first heard of Holly back in 2010 when I took a job in Mahomet. There are a couple things I can say about Mahomet. Firstly, with no offense meant by any means, Mahomet is not very racially diverse. The primarily caucasian makeup of the community makes the preliminary DNA results even more promising. If the DNA results implicate a possible Hispanic individual, this most likely means the individual is either from out of town, or from neighboring Champaign-Urbana.

The second thing that struck me about the case is the location of Candlewood Estate..
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Being that Candlewood is right off of the highway, this would give a person easy access in and out of town via US-74 to Prairie View Road. I might investigate similar occurrences in neighboring states to see if there is a possible connection between similar MO and proximity to a major highway. I have some doubts that this may be linked to a string of other acts, but it is still worth investigating.

Next, I just wanted to reflect briefly on the nature of the act. The local police stated that we should be on the look out for a person that was acquainted to Holly. I am guessing their assumption is that this looked personal given the amount of times the suspect inflicted wounds. Just in my own personal opinion, I can see there being three possible reasons for the severity of the wounds.

Possibility One- as the police stated, the person knew Holly well. Still, a younger individual (one who would most likely not hit in a blood database) would need to harness a lot of rage to carry out such an overboard act. If it was an acquaintance to Holly, this person will not be able to contain that sort of rage for too long. Either this person has been incarcerated for violence of some other type already, or they have done so again and gotten away with it.

Possibility Two- Drugs are responsible for the excessive wounds inflicted. Just recently, in 2015, an individual from Candlewood Estates was sent to the hospital after a meth lab accident caused a small house explosion. Knowing that there is a presence of meth in Candlewood Estates makes more sense when considering the nature of Holly's murder. A person that is on this type of drug can be very unpredictable and can more easily succumb to a fit of rage with the reservation of their inhibitions.

Option Three- This is the work of a serial. Although this seems like the least likely of the three to me, there are still some oddities surrounding the case that do not quite make sense. Firstly, the involvement of Jennifer Inman in this case is just bizarre. From what I have read, she seems to have been obsessed with multiple cases in the south-mid central region of this state. Inman seemed to be convinced this was the work of a serial killer and that the person had revisited the scene of the crime. One thing I need fact checked if someone has knowledge of this- I read that Holly was found in an oddly placed position with her arms out and feet together. I do not know if this is true, but it was in the Inman manifesto letters she had wrote outlining her investigation into the case. She also wrote in those letters that she found multiple pieces of evidence, such as blue latex gloves and a medium white shirt with blood on it. She claimed police refused her evidence and told her to leave, but then again she also plead insanity. It is hard to make out the facts on this one. If the latex glove evidence is true, it would certainly rule out option two and make the "fit of rage" scenario in option one unlikely as well. The finding of the latex glove would mean that this was planned, which would completely change the dynamic of the investigation.


I hope some new evidence is found soon with this case. Holly's family will remain in my thoughts.
 
This has all the markings of a sexually motivated rage killing. Either the killer was rebuffed by Holly in the past, or has some physical or psychological shortcoming that makes him unattractive to women. I wish there were more details on this crime. It says that he had sex with her after death...if thats the case I can't imagine him doing that after he stabbed her 60 times. Either he stabbed her just enough to kill her and then committed the act, or there is another cause of death masked by all the trauma.

This sounds like a classic co-worker follows the victim home and commits the act case. Maybe the offender asked her out and she rebuffed or even laughed at him.

There is no question in my mind that this murder was personal and not the result of a random serial killer. I tried to find a picture of her trailer park as well and had no luck. It would help to see where here trailer was located within the park.

I searched for autopsy info or even detailed police reports but found nothing. Its really hard to gain further insight without details.
 
Hottubcrimeclub
Please remove the part about Jennifer or remove the comment all together. That woman is my mother and I really don't appreciate people who comment on a person they don't know what so ever. Oh and as someone who was in the court she pled NGRI google it. She never plead insanity. Regardless this is not factual if you read any further you'd know she was acquitted. Her case has nothing to do with Holly. I grew up watching her try to help and then people who don't know her or me bash us both. Regardless you don't need information. Take it down please.
 
An arrest has been made: Arrest made in 2009 murder of Mahomet woman
Almost nine years after Holly Cassano was brutally murdered in her home, a 30-year-old Mahomet man has been arrested in the 2009 stabbing.

The Champaign County Sheriff's Office announced in a release early Wednesday morning that deputies arrested Michael F.A. Henslick about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday in the parking lot of Market Place Mall in Champaign. He was taken into custody on a warrant charging him with murder in the Nov. 2, 2009, death of Ms. Cassano, 22. Bond on the warrant was set at $10 million.
Morning newscast just now said that the suspect's listed address is only a few streets away from Holly's address (where Holly was killed). Press conference scheduled for 11am. [This last bit is just bits and pieces I caught while still waking up, so don't take them as confirmed yet.)
 
This is really wigging me out, because I know the suspect. We were never super close friends, but we ran in the same friends group around the time the murder happened. Mike never struck me as violent, but he was a heavy drinker, and we only really hung out socially. He did get a little creepy when he was really drunk (which was often), but no more so than most guys.

I honestly don't remember Holly's murder (too wrapped up in my own *advertiser censored* and/or too drunk to pay attention to the local news) but I've been keeping up with the investigation since then, and this is just crazy.
 
Press conference summary:
--Suspect was arrested at 6:15 pm yesterday suspect arrested in parking lot of Market Place mall in Champaign, IL (Henslick was actually arrested on violation of a no-contact order in a current domestic violence case, and will be charged with Cassano's murder this afternoon)
--being held on $10 million bond
--Will be arraigned at 1:30 pm today on four charges of 1st degree murder (the various charges apparently cover "different mental states," if I understood that correctly
--Charges carry possible sentence of 20-60 years, with no possibility of a shortened sentence for "good behavior" (not eligible for the death penalty as Illinois' last/previous governor unilaterally abolished the DP)
--Used Parabon Labs to do genetic and genealogy research (a la when they search for the Golden State Killer); this resulted in enough info for the Sheriff's Office to hone in on suspect, at which point LE kept the suspect under surveillance for several days
--Henslick was IDd by DNA from discarded cigarette butts
--Both Cassano and Henslick lived in Candlewick Trailer Park
--Both Cassano and Henslick attended Mahomet High School for several years at the same time (so their time at the school overlapped)
--Cassano and Henslick has several mutual friends/acquaintances, but *no* indication that they knew each other further than that
--Trailer Park has approximately 2000 residents (I question this, as Mahomet does not have a very big population), but no reason to suspect Henslick in particular at time of crime
--Henslick has a criminal history as follows:
----2009 1st conviction for controlled substance charge, placed on "first offender probation" as is standard for that charge in IL; that charge does not require submission of DNA
----Essentially "under the radar" until early 2015, when stopped for a traffic violation and found to be in possession of 60g. of marijuana and a small amount of cocaine
----Failed to appear on those charges; this started a cycle of "warrants issued for failure to appear, placed on probation, failed to appear for probation, warrants issues, etc." ad nauseam
--Appeared on the above pending charges on Monday, is also due to appear in court on the pending DV charges (which he was actually arrested for)
--They made specific mention of Holly's mother, Toni, and her daughter, Alexis, and said that both women have become "like family" to the Sheriff's Office
 
Press conference summary:
--Suspect was arrested at 6:15 pm yesterday suspect arrested in parking lot of Market Place mall in Champaign, IL (Henslick was actually arrested on violation of a no-contact order in a current domestic violence case, and will be charged with Cassano's murder this afternoon)
--being held on $10 million bond
--Will be arraigned at 1:30 pm today on four charges of 1st degree murder (the various charges apparently cover "different mental states," if I understood that correctly
--Charges carry possible sentence of 20-60 years, with no possibility of a shortened sentence for "good behavior" (not eligible for the death penalty as Illinois' last/previous governor unilaterally abolished the DP)
--Used Parabon Labs to do genetic and genealogy research (a la when they search for the Golden State Killer); this resulted in enough info for the Sheriff's Office to hone in on suspect, at which point LE kept the suspect under surveillance for several days
--Henslick was IDd by DNA from discarded cigarette butts
--Both Cassano and Henslick lived in Candlewick Trailer Park
--Both Cassano and Henslick attended Mahomet High School for several years at the same time (so their time at the school overlapped)
--Cassano and Henslick has several mutual friends/acquaintances, but *no* indication that they knew each other further than that
--Trailer Park has approximately 2000 residents (I question this, as Mahomet does not have a very big population), but no reason to suspect Henslick in particular at time of crime
--Henslick has a criminal history as follows:
----2009 1st conviction for controlled substance charge, placed on "first offender probation" as is standard for that charge in IL; that charge does not require submission of DNA
----Essentially "under the radar" until early 2015, when stopped for a traffic violation and found to be in possession of 60g. of marijuana and a small amount of cocaine
----Failed to appear on those charges; this started a cycle of "warrants issued for failure to appear, placed on probation, failed to appear for probation, warrants issues, etc." ad nauseam
--Appeared on the above pending charges on Monday, is also due to appear in court on the pending DV charges (which he was actually arrested for)
--They made specific mention of Holly's mother, Toni, and her daughter, Alexis, and said that both women have become "like family" to the Sheriff's Office
good lord this new technology is a game changer.
 

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