INTERNATIONAL
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TRA SLC een MeN RLU
December 16, 2010
The information contained in this report is confidential and
is the sole property of Will County Sheriff's Office
enterprise secu.$$$
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.. 3
‘DIE RILEY FOX CASE, ITS INVESTIGATION AND ITS REINVESTIGATION.......6
The Crime ener ssnsne : eZ
‘The Initial Investigation 7
‘The Case against Kevin Fox. 9
The Confession .....
‘The DNA Evidence...
‘The Re
tigation and Real Story of the Crime. .
CRITIQUE OF THE FOX INVESTIGATION...
RECOMMENDATIONS...
‘THE ANDREWS INTERNATIONAL TEAM
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INTRODUCTION
‘There were no winners in the Riley Fox case. ‘The Fox family suffered, and continues to suffer,
an unimaginable loss and, in its aftermath, a harrowing ordeal, Riley Fox, a child of three, was
Kidnapped, sexually abused, and drowned in a muddy creek. Within five months, her father
Kevin Fox, was wrongly accused of the crime and imprisoned for eight months, under threat of
the death penalty, until DNA evidence exonerated him. His wife Melissa Fox, bereft of her
daughter and her husband, was left alone to contend with the immense emotional consequences
of the murder and the arrest. Tyler Fox, Riley’s older brother, suffered through an extended
‘interview about the crime shortly after Riley's death and eventually saw his father wrongly
accused of, and arrested for, a crime he did not commit.
“The Will County Sherifi’s office made major mistakes while investigating this case, targeting the
\wrong man and missing opportunities from the beginning that potentially would have led ¢o the
killer, Of course, it is far easier in hindsight to determine where the investigators went wrong,
and it is important to note that Andrews Intemational found no indication that they did so
intentionally. Instead, well intentioned, if overzealous, investigators followed what they
believed to be sound leads and sound practice in the case. It is now clear that they ignored. or
‘were unaware of, other substantial leads and information that may have Ted them to very
different conclusions regarding how this crime was committed and about Kevin Fox's
culpability, It s also clear that management of the investigation by ranking supervisors in the
Will County Sherif's Department chain of command wes almost nonexistent.
responsibilities fell largely 10 the assigned investigator to direct and manage the acti ties of
other investigators from different units in his department, as well as investigators from federal,
state, and Jocal agencies. The investigators’ conception of sound investigative practice was
flawed in many respects, including their then-current practice in conducting interviews,
administering polygraphs, and recording confessions. Most ofall, they had a flawed conception
regarding how 10 manage a case of this complexity in terms of Keeping options Pen,
incorporating new facts, repeatedly revisiting known facts and evidence, and resisting the
temptation to prematurely narrow the focus of the investigation to a single target.
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Several of the investigators that Andrews International interviewed expressed profound regret
and contrition about the course the case eventually took, ‘They were not out to “get” Kevin Fox.
In some respects, they were victims themselves, of their own inadequate training for and limited
experience with crimes of this severity and of the general lack of a management system and
sound practice in the Criminal Investigative Section of the Will County Sheriff's Office.
Recognizing these problems, Sheriff Paul Kaupas has retained Andrews International to review
the entire Fox case and to make recommendations for improving the systems, protocols, and
methods that failed so dramatically in this instance, Sheriff Kaupas urged the consultants to
conduct a thorough review, shining a light on all the facts and circumstances of this case to
improve the quality of the Sheriff's Office's investigative function.
‘Andrews International conducted an independent evaluation of the Criminal Investigations
Section, reviewing and evaluating procedures, staffing, management, and organizational
structure in addition to comparing Will County practice to best practices in policing and criminal
investigations. Andrews International also reviewed the entire Riley Fox case file and
interviewed most of the personnel from the Sheriff's Office, as well as investigators from other
agencies involved in the case and its investigation. Although the sheriff urged all current and
former Will County Sheriff's Office personnel to cooperate with the Andrews International
study, several of the principal supervisors and investigators declined to be interviewed, as did the
former State’s Attorney and his deputy.
‘This report summarizes Andrews International’s findings in the case and recommendations for
going forward. Sheriff Keupas has committed to act decisively on the findings and
recommendations. Conducting an investigation is never an exact science and cliciting
confessions from guilty persons is a complex process in which mistakes will sometimes be made
That is the reason why frequent training, procedural
by investigators in pursuit of « crit
safeguards, and sound management are so important to the investigative process. In serious
cases, investigative managers should exercise continual oversight and critical review of the
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investigative team, and the State's Attorney's legal team should thoroughly vet both the case ané
the confession well beyond establishing probable cause, as they proceed to prosecute a
defendant.
‘A-crime of these dimensions, a crime that shocks the conscience of the community, can never be
treated as business as usual either by investigators or by their managers. Investigators will try to
do whatever is necessary to bring the culprit to justice, but the managers and government
attomeys play a somewhat different role. They too want to solve the ease, but their function is
also to ensure that there is no rush to judgment and that innocent people are not ensnared in the
‘raps laid forthe guilty. Although Will County investigators etred in targeting Kevin Pox, the
failures in oversight in this case, by both investigative managers and the State's Attomey's
Office, were actually more glaring. Andrews International hopes that the recommendations of
this report will help correct the problems we have identified in the Sheriff's Office and in the
interactions between the Sheriff's Office and the States Attorney’s Office so that Future cases
have a better foundation in both the established evidence and in sound investigative practice.
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THE RILEY FOX CASE, ITS INVESTIGATION AND ITS REINVESTIGATION
The Crime
Riley Fox was kidnapped and murdered on June 6, 2004, She was taken from her home in
Wilmington, Illinois in the carly morning hours, and her body was found in Forked Creek in a
part of the Forsythe Woods Forest Preserve at about 3:15 pm the same day by volunteers who
had joined the search for the missing girl. Kevin, Riley's father, had been caring for her and her
brother Tyler on the day of June 5! because their mother Melissa had left for Chicago where she
planned to spend the night and participate in a march the following day in support of breast
cancer research. During the day on June 5, Kevin had taken the children to an art supply store
to purchase materials to make posters that they were to hold up at the Chicago march, which they
‘were all planning to attend the following day. During the evening of June 5", Kevin left both
children at the home of their maternal grandmother Sandy Rossi while he and his brother-in-law
‘Tony Rossi attended a concert in Chicago. Kevin and Tony returned to Wilmington between
midnight and 1 pm, They had been drinking in Chicago and may or may not have been
intoxicated by the time they reached Wilmington. Kevin dropped off Tony, picked up the kids,
and returned home. The children’s beds were unmade, so Kevin put them to sleep in the living
room, with Riley on the couch and Tyler on a chair and an ottoman. Kevin smoked a cigarette
‘on the porch and watched television before going to sleep at about 2:30 am,
It is now been established that Scott Eby, a person known to the Wilmington Police, whose
criminal record included three burglary convictions, entered the Fox residence in the early
morning hours of June 6", while Kevin was sleeping, and carried off Riley Fox. He drove her to
the Forsythe Woods Forest Preserve, some three miles from the Fox residence, sexually abused
her, and drowned her in Forked Creek.
Kevin Fox was awakened by his son Tyler at 7:50 am on June 6". Tyler told him that Riley was
gone. Kevin began to search for her, queried a neighbor by phone about whether she had seen
Riley or not, and continued to search until he called a non-emergency 411 number to report her
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