Dec 5, 2006 7:04 pm US/Central
Slain Burger King Manager's Family Makes Statement
Victim's Daughter Speaks Publicly About Murder For First Time
by Katie McCall
TREVOR, Wis. (CBS) ―
The grieving family of slain Burger King manager Mary Hutchison spoke Tuesday at a news conference about the difficulty coping with the entire ordeal.
CBS 2's North Suburban Bureau Chief Katie McCall reports that was the first time Mary Hutchison's daughter spoke out in public.
When Mary Hutchison's husband spoke to CBS 2 last week he said he believed his wife's employer had done everything in their power to keep her safe on the job. Tuesday night he had a very different message.
Kenneth Hutchison was devastated when he learned last week that his wife, 45-year-old Mary Hutchison, was murdered on the job. Tuesday evening he was furious.
That anger comes after learning that James Ealy, the man who police say strangled and stabbed Mary Hutchison last Monday, was convicted in the strangling deaths of four people in 1982. An appellate court threw out that conviction in 1986.
Hutchison says the people who set him free have blood on their hands.
"I don't want to comment on this man's past, because you can't go back in the past. I just want justice to be served," said Kenneth Hutchison.
Hutchison's daughter was the only one in the family to comment Tuesday on the suspect in the murder.
"I would like to thank everyone who helped arrest James Ealy. And for those who would ask, yes, I did meet James Ealy a couple months ago when my mother would take me to Burger King. I just don't understand why anyone would kill anyone. But the wonderful thing is that they caught this creep," said the victim's daughter Rebecca Hutchison.
Hutchison is also suing the Burger King restaurant-owner, Fox Lake Family Dining, for hiring Ealy, who had worked with his wife at the Lindenhurst restaurant.
On the morning she was killed, Ealy was working at a nearby McDonald's, and was also employed at this value city in Gurnee.
A spokesperson for the Burger King would not say whether they conducted a criminal background check on Ealy, but pointed the finger at him saying he lied about his criminal record on his application.
"He falsified his application with us and the application indicates that he was not convicted of any felonies which we now know to be untrue," said Fox Lake Family Dining spokesperson Chris Ondrula over the phone.
The Lake County coroner said Mary Hutchison's murder was a very violent one and that though she died of strangulation she also suffered multiple stab wounds
James Ealy goes to court Wednesday for a status hearing to determine if he will keep his current court-appointed attorney or hire a new one.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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