IL IL - Debbie Fijan, 10, DuPage County, 11 Feb 1966 - #2

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Someone came forward in 2009 in Maria Ridulph's case which allowed the case to break wide open.

It is not too late to do the right thing in Debbie's case.

If you have any information regarding Debbie's case, please call the Sheriff's Office at 630.407.2400 and ask for the Cold Case Unit.


http://www.dupagesheriff.org/unsolved%20murders.htm
 
This is very hard for me. In 1967 I was 5 years of age. It was in the spring, probably April. We lived one house down from the grade school where Debbie was abducted, on a 40 acre spread of land. A hired hand who was responsible for the care and feeding of a female saddlebred horse we had recently purchased brutally sexually assaulted me, strangled me and left me for dead in our barn. The initial attack took place in our basement, but I eventuallly fled to our barn when the attack was interrupted by my mother and siblings coming home. My father discovered me later that night in one of the horse stalls.

I am now 51. We do not know the man's name. My parents, one of whom has died and the other who confirmed the attack but now has senility, are not able to help with his identity. The man actaully harrassed my family after my attack by strangling and hanging a pet goat out the tack room window and we think he was also responsible for both the death of the colt and the horse. My father has said he was mentally ill and quite crazy.

I have contacted the Detective in charge of Debbie's murder and he knows all the facts. I do not know if the events were related, but in such a rural area I think that would be quite odd in less than a year to have 2 evil men commit 2 such horrific crimes. Really, what are the odd? My attacker worked for Mr. Mountjoy who was a horse breeder at Fair Oaks Farms. Because of the publicity surrounding Debbie's death, my father did not file a police report and we have been silent about my attack all these years.

The man was about 35, very weathered in the face with very rough hands, wore a plaid brown western shirt with pearl buttons, tan western pants and cowboy boots. He had dirty blonde hair, was very wiry in his frame and he drove a tan El Comino. He also wore a green jean jacket and carried a very distinctive knife on his belt. He smelled of cigarettes and alcohol. He used very rough language. He was responsible for delivering feed for the horse to our barn. He attacked me when my mother had left me home napping to pick up my siblings from school.

He may have come by our home in the year 1966 with Mr. Mountjoy as my father made arrangements to buy the horse. Mr, Mountjoy drove a white car that was a large sedan and it may have been a convertable. I believe this man was a serial pedofile and perhaps serial murderer.

If this rings a bell to anyone, please message me on Facebook. My heart goes out to Debbie's family and I am sorry it has taken me so long to find the courage to post this. If anyone on Websleuthes knows any thing about this man or if you can connect this to Debbie's death, then please, please do so.
 
Welcome to WS, Karin. Thank you for having the courage to share your story. There are plenty of great sleuths here who will look for connections to Debbie's case.


If I may ask, what was the location of Fair Oaks Farms at the time? Was it local?
 
Thanks for the encouragement. I still suffer from PTS episodes, so it has taken me a long time to be able to publicly post my story.

We lived at 28W100 St. Charles Road in West Chicago. Basically, as you exit unto St. Charles road from old North, our land was the first property on the same side as the school. The location was: our property(we had a caretakers cottage near the road), then the Johnson's house and then the school. The Johnson's house was purchased and has become part of the school.(we were that close!)

Fair Oaks Farm was on Fair Oaks Road. If one were to follow St. Charles Road to Fair Oaks and then go halfway between where Debbie's body was found and St Charles road, there would have been Fair Oaks Farm. Scary right?

My sister often follows these posts. She wonders if perhaps Debbie had a fondnes for horses? I don't want to upset Debbie's family in that I think they deeply believe in the guilt of the school teacher. My father quietly went to the authorities and to many others trying to get them to look at the man who assaulted me in connection with debbie's death. He always felt very guilty that they had decided not to pursue him ( no filing of a police report due to the Chicago tribune) other than I know they sent a man or two to "scare" him. My father also confronted Mr. Mountjoy more than once.

Please ask me anything. I am afraid, but this is important for me to "tell" on this man, even as a 51 year old women.

I have been in counseling with a wonderful counselor who has known a lot about PTS and sexual trauma.

I leave all of this to you and the other slueths. I sometimes loose the ability to speak when the PTS is triggered in that is was a severe trauma. For awhile I couldn't move when I tried to talk about this. I went to the ER many times thinking I was having a stroke. My siblings have substantiated many of my memories, as has my father. I missed at least the last month or more or kindrgarten after this event.

Thanks,
Karin
 
Thank you for the info Karin. I'm in the middle of trying to get my kiddo's homework done. I should say, trying to get the kiddo to do his homework, I'm not doing it.

Your timing is immeasurable. Debbie's birthday is this week. The 16th. I like to think she is directing us here....

I will look more into the info you posted when I have some child free time. I'm local so I can head over to any of the local libraries for research if necessary too.
 
Debbie and I were classmates. I started at Benjamin (4th grade) late Nov., early Dec. 1964, and was extremely sad when I found out that Debbie was missing that Friday night after a BB game. Debbie was one of the first classmates that introduced herself to me on my first day of school, she introduced me to some of the other kids, and gave me a general "tour" of the school. We ate lunch together quite a few times in the "school cafeteria" (a.k.a. the gym). I shed some tears when I heard the terrible news on Sat. morning that she had been murdered the night before, I shed some tears when I went to her funeral, and I've shed more tears after finding WS and reading many of the entries. After all these years I never stopped wondering about what happened with her case. As a 10 yr. old, I don't recall my parents telling me much about the surrounding details, and I didn't know much about LS, his "family connections" at the time, mother's maiden name, etc. I only had LS as a teacher for about 6-7 months. One thing is certain, I'm very glad to have known Debbie for about 15 months. She was very kind & considerate, and I will always hold the short time we knew each other very close to my heart. I have many questions that I will hold off on for now, but will post them in the near future. I'm also very curious about Karin's entries that I will also hold off for now.
 
Welcome to WS, Kayo - 55 :welcome:

Thank you for joining us, sharing your memories of Debbie and your interest in seeing her receive the justice she deserves.

Ask away and we will try and answer any questions you may have.
 
Karin Norbeck Smith said:
Thanks for the encouragement. I still suffer from PTS episodes, so it has taken me a long time to be able to publicly post my story.

We lived at 28W100 St. Charles Road in West Chicago. Basically, as you exit unto St. Charles road from old North, our land was the first property on the same side as the school. The location was: our property(we had a caretakers cottage near the road), then the Johnson's house and then the school. The Johnson's house was purchased and has become part of the school.(we were that close!)

Fair Oaks Farm was on Fair Oaks Road. If one were to follow St. Charles Road to Fair Oaks and then go halfway between where Debbie's body was found and St Charles road, there would have been Fair Oaks Farm. Scary right?

My sister often follows these posts. She wonders if perhaps Debbie had a fondnes for horses? I don't want to upset Debbie's family in that I think they deeply believe in the guilt of the school teacher. My father quietly went to the authorities and to many others trying to get them to look at the man who assaulted me in connection with debbie's death. He always felt very guilty that they had decided not to pursue him ( no filing of a police report due to the Chicago tribune) other than I know they sent a man or two to "scare" him. My father also confronted Mr. Mountjoy more than once.

Please ask me anything. I am afraid, but this is important for me to "tell" on this man, even as a 51 year old women.

I have been in counseling with a wonderful counselor who has known a lot about PTS and sexual trauma.

I leave all of this to you and the other slueths. I sometimes loose the ability to speak when the PTS is triggered in that is was a severe trauma. For awhile I couldn't move when I tried to talk about this. I went to the ER many times thinking I was having a stroke. My siblings have substantiated many of my memories, as has my father. I missed at least the last month or more or kindrgarten after this event.

Thanks,
Karin
Click to expand...


KNS,

Is it ok if I abbv your screen name as KNS? I've been doing some digging for info on Fair Oaks Farm. I'm not finding much besides info on the horses they raced. And some info on a Polish immigrant who first started the farm. Still digging though......

In addition to FOF, I am going to search for crimes against children committed by farm hands (or something along those lines).

Out of curiousity, was the Fair Oaks Farm on the East or West side of Fair Oaks?

Did the farm hand worker have an accent or did he sound like a local?

tia!
 
TNT Orders Unsolved Mysteries Unscripted Series

Tentatively titled "Cold Justice," the Wolf Films and Magical Elves series is being eyed for a late summer launch.

TNT has given a series order to a real-life Cold Case series.

Tentatively titled Cold Justice, the unscripted effort will follow two female investigators Kelly Siegler and Yolana McClary, as they delve into murder cases that have gone unsolved for years.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tnts-cold-justice-gets-series-410426


I would love to see Debbie's case submitted for consideration by the producers of this new cold case murder series scheduled to premier late this summer.

I'm going to look for the producers contact info and add it here. Hopefully others are as interested in seeing Debbie's case submitted as I am.

Off to search for the contact info as time permits.

Still praying for Justice for Debbie.
 
Thank you for coming out of lurkdom for Debbie's case, scooby2057 and thank you for the link to the historic map. I've seen it before, but couldn't make heads or tails about where the Fair Oaks farm might have been. According to KNS's post it was half way between St. Charles and Lies on Fair Oaks.

I googled Slepicka and it looks like he was a soybean farmer in Kane County.

It looks like the last bit of Slepicka's land was sold to the Carol Stream park district in 2006 according to the following article:

https://prev.dailyherald.com/story/print/?id=7895

A walking trail will connect to nearby Jirsa Park, located southwest of Slepicka, as well as Lies Road, allowing easy access for bikers and pedestrians. The park district bought the land last year for about $840,000 from Frank Slepicka, a Kane County soybean farmer who gradually sold off his 120-acre farm in what is now Carol Stream.
 
A few more tid bit's.

Due to confidentiality, I can not say how or where I obtained this information, so you guys will just have to decide if you trust me or not.

There are still several POI's or possible suspects in this case. No one has been ruled out. Some of these possibles we have discussed previously within the two threads for Debbie. Some we have not discussed.

I can say with confidence the detectives working Debbie's case, as well as the other Cold Cases in DuPage County, are very very dedicated to getting these cases solved.

With regards to forensic evidence in this case. Science is and continues to catch up with the evidence in this case.... and answers may be occuring sooner than we think.

We continue to soldier on for Debbie as the 47th anniversary of her unsolved murder approaches with no stone left unturned.

Still praying this is the year Debbie receives the justice she so deserves. :please:
 
KNS's post asking about Debbie's interest in horses got me thinking about Sally Kandel's solved murder again. IIRC the location Debbie was found was within 2000' or less of where Sally was found in September of 1972.

I think we need to reconsider the proximity of the victims locations in both Debbie and Sally's case and see if we can find any further connections.

We may be able to obtain doc's for Sally's case since it is already solved.

Just tossing some idea's out there to rejuvinate this case in the new year.

One bit of info on Sally's case:

http://il.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.19761112_0001611.IL.htm/qx


Please feel free to dig in as time permit's fellow sleuths! No one owns this info or suggestions, so let's continue to be the great team we've been in the past. Fresh eye's and fresh idea's are always welcome, don't be shy!
 
Cubby said:
A few more tid bit's.

Due to confidentiality, I can not say how or where I obtained this information, so you guys will just have to decide if you trust me or not.

There are still several POI's or possible suspects in this case. No one has been ruled out. Some of these possibles we have discussed previously within the two threads for Debbie. Some we have not discussed.

I can say with confidence the detectives working Debbie's case, as well as the other Cold Cases in DuPage County, are very very dedicated to getting these cases solved.

With regards to forensic evidence in this case. Science is and continues to catch up with the evidence in this case.... and answers may be occuring sooner than we think.

We continue to soldier on for Debbie as the 47th anniversary of her unsolved murder approaches with no stone left unturned.

Still praying this is the year Debbie receives the justice she so deserves. :please:
Click to expand...

Excellent. I can feel your confidence.
 
OT- You can have the snow, Claudette. I'm loving this above freezing weather. My furnace hasn't turned on in about 24 hours. It's always nice to not need the furnace to kick in in January!
 
My thanks to Cubby and other WS members for welcoming me to WS. I should have joined sooner, and hope that I can help with Debbie's "case". My comment and question with this post is in regards to KNS. I'm only a few years older than you KNS, and had no idea what had happened to you in 1967. I took the school bus to Benjamin each morning, up until 1969, and would have gone right past your property where you lived off of St. Charles as you described. One of our favorite places a few of us would usually walk from where we lived (vicinity of County Farm Rd. and St. Charles Rd.) was The Olde North Pancake House. I'm not sure if you remember it, or if it still exists. My question for you (KNS) is whether or not your father or any other family members knew LS, JS, other relatives? I don't mean to "pry", but what kind of work did your father do? Anything highway related, contracting, etc., where he might have overheard something? If I recall, JS drowned on a fishing trip (Canada) in May 1967?? Most likely, none of this relates to Debbie's case, but just thought I would ask. Possibly, it might "jog your memory" about something. This is probably a result of watching too many old "Cold Case" episodes.
 
FWIW, the The Olde North Pancake House is still there and still open.

Looking back at Sally Kandel's murder in 1972. Both her and Debbie's eyes were slit. The man convicted of Sally's murder was 14 at the time Debbie was murdered, so I think it is pretty unlikely he is a possible, unless of course he was driving at 14.
 
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