Nov 28, 2006 3:03 pm US/Central
$1,000 Reward Offered In Burger King Murder
Manager At Lindenhurst Burger King Was Found Slain On Monday
CBS 2's Vince Gerasole and North Suburban Bureau Chief Katie McCall contributed to this report.
LINDENHURST, Ill. (CBS) ―
Police are offering a $1,000 reward for the capture of the person who killed the manager of a
Burger King in the far north suburbs, after a former employee was questioned and released.
As CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports, Mary Hutchison, 45, was found slain inside the Burger King at Munn Road and Grand Avenue in
Lindenhurst.
At a news conference at 11 a.m., police said a $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the person responsible.
A source told CBS 2 that a person of interest was questioned on Monday night and became a suspect, but was later released without charges. That person was a former employee of the Burger King, the source said.
At the crime scene in Lindenhurst, there was no evidence of forced entry, the security alarm never sounded, and the fully clothed victim displayed no signs of sexual assault. These three factors lead police to believe that Hutchison's slaying was no random act.
In the hours after Hutchison's death, police were hoping surveillance footage from a security camera could provide them with clues.
Hutchison, a mother of three from
Trevor, Wis., died from blunt force trauma, police said. She also suffered three stab woundes to her back, a source said.
A co-worker discovered her body at 5:15 a.m. on Monday, next to an open and empty safe.
Police said Hutchison had arrived at 4 a.m. to conduct a weekly inventory. A source said some of the inventory work was done and Hutchison was killed sometime after she arrived at work.
Ironically, Hutchison was the victim of a burglary and pistol whipping at another Burger King in
Antioch earlier this year. It was only last June that she transferred to the Lindenhurst location that became the site of her murder.
As many as 20 investigators from the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force are working the case, as well as Lindenhurst investigators.
This was the first murder in Lindenhurst in over nine years, but police said it did not mean the community is unsafe.
"As horrible as this incident is, it does not necessarily have implications as far as the safety of the community," Chief Jack McKeever with the Lindenhurst Police Department said on Monday. "In other words, it's not that we consider this to be a non-focused random crime. The indication is that robbery was the primary motive of this homicide."
Burger King officials are holding a news conference on the crime at 3 p.m. CBS 2's Joanie Lum will have an update on this story tonight at 5.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Get breaking news alerts
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Amtrak Train Strikes Man 5 mins ago
County Employees Among 10 Charged With Fraud 41 mins ago
Stumble It!
