Crime scenes soften in time

Raul Briseño was found bleeding outside his Burrito Express restaurant, which now houses Frontier Chiropractic, after a botched robbery. (Sandy Bressner photo)

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Drivers sitting in traffic along Route 120 in McHenry might not notice a small shopping center or dry cleaners near Third Street unless traffic is backed up near Sullivan Foods.

But police officers once combed the area on their hands and knees searching for evidence – hoping to find a gun or shell casings – in a botched robbery that left two bullets lodged in the shopping center and another inside a local restaurant owner.

Burrito Express owner Raul Briseño and his employee chased two would-be robbers from the small eatery and had captured one when the gunman started shooting a little after 7 p.m. March 6, 2001, authorities said.

Briseño only had a faint, erratic heartbeat when paramedics responded to the parking lot directly in front of his restaurant, which now is a chiropractor’s office. Police found him in the fetal position with blood pooling around his head, and a butcher knife he had used to defend his business near his side.

The incident sparked an investigation and a series of court cases, but no signs of the ultimately fatal struggle that cold March night endure at the scene more than seven years later.

That’s typical of the places that once set the stage for violent acts that many would rather forget. Loved ones might place a small memorial for a life lost, but more often the scenes of vicious crimes blend into the normal pace of suburban life after crime scene investigators finish photographing everything of substance.

So much so, that newer or younger residents might not know they were once a place of tragedy, violence or woe. Here are a few other one-time crime scenes that dot McHenry County’s landscape:

6206 S. Kilkenny Drive, outside Cary

An elderly couple was found shot in the back of their heads Nov. 20, 2006, inside their single-story home in the Killarney Acres subdivision between Cary and Crystal Lake. The house sits on a hill off the street near the subdivision’s namesake lake in what police describe as a quiet neighborhood.

A for sale sign sits near the roadside. The three-bedroom ranch with two fireplaces and a walk-out basement is listed for $299,000, according to Trulia.com.

Michael Romano found his dad, Nick, 71, and stepmother, Gloria, 65, dead in separate rooms wearing “daytime clothes” about 3 a.m. on a Monday morning. The coroner did not find signs of other injuries or defensive wounds.

Michael Romano became a “person of interest” after he stopped cooperating with investigators, although publicly he has denied being involved in the crime, said Lt. Andy Zinke of the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office.

Another son, Nicholas, is offering a $100,000 reward for any information leading to a conviction.

Investigators still are working on the case, although progress has slowed.

“It’s not on a shelf not being pursued,” Zinke said. “We’re still pursuing leads as they come in.”

Anyone who has information about the deaths is asked to contact the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department Criminal Investigations Division at 815-334-4750.

Miller Road, west of Haligus Road, in Lake in the Hills

Edward Johncours, then 66, started shooting at his ex-wife, who was driving a white Taurus, from inside his moving car in the Summit Ridge West subdivision about 3:20 p.m. on April 2, 2007.

As the two cars approached Haligus Road on Miller Road, Johncours pulled his black Thunderbird alongside the 61-year-old woman’s car and shot her in the head, police said. Her car careened off the road, stopping on a berm on the south side of Miller and Haligus.

That’s close to Lake in the Hill’s Bark Park and skate park, as well as Sunset Park, which is hosting the Summer Sunset Festival this weekend.

Edward Johncours was sentenced to 31 years in prison in June as part of a negotiated plea agreement. The law requires him to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence, so he won’t be eligible for parole until he’s 92.

527 W. South St., Woodstock

A 41-year-old frequent patient of what was then known as the South Street Behavioral Health Clinic walked into the lobby one afternoon in July 2004, doused a part-time receptionist with gasoline, and lit her on fire. Ellen Polivka, 69, died about five weeks later at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.

The alleged culprit, Lawrence Hucksteadt, now 45, has teetered between mentally fit and unfit to stand trial since then. He’s been charged with murder, heinous battery and aggravated arson. He’s presently at a state mental heath facility, but prosecutors are trying to schedule a hearing to determine whether he is fit to stand trial. The case is next due in court Sept. 15.

Centegra Health System, which owns and operates the clinic, has since renovated the lobby and cafeteria so they are more in keeping with a healing environment, spokeswoman Melissa Matusek said. Those renovations included moving the security office to the front lobby and installing a new canopy and façade on the lobby area.

Leaders also have added inpatient hospice service through a partnership with Hospice of Northeastern Illinois and strengthened the extended care center.

Not too long after the incident, Centegra staff planted a tree in Polivka’s honor near the lobby, where it still stands today.

Gauger farm

Morris and Ruth Gauger were found dead on their Richmond organic farm in the 3000 block of Route 173 in April 1993.

Their son, Gary Gauger, was convicted, and later exonerated, of their murders based largely on a “confession” he uttered after about 16 hours of questioning. But Gauger later said he was only responding to hypothetical questions when police told Gauger that he must have murdered them while he was in a blackout.

Gauger spent nine months on death row and three years in prison after being convicted of his parents' murders. A former state’s attorney dropped the charges in 1996 after an appellate court ruling and after others were implicated during a federal investigation.

Gauger was pardoned by then-Gov. George Ryan in 2002. He has become a national voice of opposition to the death penalty.

Two Outlaw motorcycle gang members, Randall Miller and James Schneider, were convicted in connection with the murders as part of federal racketeering case. In a sworn statement, Schneider detailed how he and Miller murdered the Gaugers during a robbery attempt and how they were disappointed to find only about $15.

The victims’ daughter, Ginger, now runs a shop with ethnic and traditional crafts, gifts and rugs on the farm, according to her Web site, www.gingerblossom.com.