Runge: FBI lapse let him remain free
Anne Warfield
FBI lapse let serial killer suspect remain free
By Cam Simpson
Tribune staff reporter
June 16, 2001
The Chicago FBI on Friday acknowledged a lapse in alerting Illinois
officials that they found a knife in the home of suspected serial
killer Paul Runge—notification that could have sent him back to prison
before he allegedly murdered four more women.
Runge, a 31-year-old truck driver and former shoe salesman, was
charged Thursday with killing six women and a child. His last four
victims, police said, were slain in Chicago in early 1997, more than
one year after the search of his Carol Stream home.
When the knife was found on March 8, 1996, the FBI and two other law
enforcement agencies involved didn't think of using it to invoke a
violation of Runge's parole for a 1987 rape, said Ross Rice, a
spokesman for the FBI in Chicago.
Instead, investigators were solely focused on finding evidence they
hoped would link Runge to the 1995 murder of Stacey Frobel and the
disappearances that same year of two sisters who were refugees from
war-torn Bosnia, Rice said.
Only in May 1997, when authorities were desperate to lock up Runge
because they suspected— but could not prove— that he was a killer, did
they hit on the tactic of violating Runge's parole for possession of
the weapon, Rice said.
Illinois officials jailed Runge the next month. When his sentence
expired in 1999, authorities went to court in 1999 to keep him in
prison under the Sexually Violent Persons Act. Psychologists testified
he was a "sexual sadist" and said he had no remorse for the
kidnapping, repeated rape and torture of a 14-year-old Oak Forest
girl.
He was still being held when police said DNA evidence linked him to
two murders and Runge then allegedly confessed to the other slayings.
Authorities believe Runge is responsible for at least one other
murder, law enforcement sources said Friday. He allegedly confessed to
also killing a prostitute and chopping up her body, scattering the
remains, which have not been found, the sources said.
Police have charged him with three murders in which the victims were
dismembered. Two of those bodies have not been found and a dog found
the legs of another victim in Lake County.
Authorities also said Runge nearly escaped last year after he and two
other inmates being driven to a Cook County court hearing overpowered
a corrections officer during a stop in Plainfield. Their escape was
brief because they were immediately captured by local police who
witnessed the incident, officials said.
The knife that eventually sent Runge back to prison was among more
than 200 items seized from the home Runge shared with his wife and
father, according to court records. FBI agents also found a book about
a serial killer who dismembered women and kept their eyeballs as
souvenirs, a guide to police radio traffic, a crossbow and a stun gun,
records show.
Looking for evidence
"We never felt that any of these items, including the knife, in and of
itself, would be a parole offense, nor were we looking to violate his
parole," Rice said. "We were looking for evidence linking him to the
disappearances and or linking him to the murder of Frobel."
When the FBI finally notified state officials about the knife, Runge
had only about three weeks left on his parole, which was part of what
motivated the effort to lock him up, Rice said.
What is clear from once-sealed court records obtained Friday is that
the FBI's efforts to link Runge to the 1995 Frobel killing and the
disappearance of the two Bosnian women was intense in 1995 and early
1996.
Runge's wife, Charlene, was also considered a suspect in the
disappearances of Frobel and the Bosnian sisters, an FBI agent said in
a affidavit to obtain a search warrant.
Two law enforcement sources said Friday that Charlene Runge has been
assisting in the investigation of her husband. That cooperation began
after Paul Runge was back in custody in June 1997, but long before DNA
evidence linked him to two Chicago murders late last year, a source
said.
Attempts to reach Charlene Runge for comment were unsuccessful Friday.
On Thursday, Runge was charged with the murders of the
Bosnians—Dzeneta Pasanbegovic, 22, and her sister, Amela, 20.
FBI tracking Runge
The 1996 affidavit revealed FBI agents had studied bite marks on
Frobel's dismembered leg, followed Runge and his wife, traced calls
from pay phones the couple used, tapped their phones and sifted
through their garbage for months looking for evidence.
Investigators said Runge became a suspect in the murder of Frobel a
few days after a German shepherd named Friendly brought home a severed
leg it found in a field near the Wisconsin border on Jan. 16, 1995.
Five days later, the dog brought home another leg. Tests concluded
they were Frobel's, who was a friend of Charlene Runge's. She had been
missing since Jan. 4 and was last seen at the Runge house.
The Pasanbegovic sisters were last seen on July 11, 1995.
Runge became a suspect in that case after the FBI discovered Runge and
his wife had allegedly offered the women housecleaning jobs through a
mutual acquaintance, records show.
The day the sisters disappeared, "I believe that [they] left in the
company of Charlene Runge, to go to her residence for the purported
purpose of taking a job cleaning houses," FBI agent Kathy Dee Shumaker
said in the affidavit.
Another connection to sisters
At that time, the Runges lived in Glendale Heights and Paul Runge
worked for a HoneyBaked Ham store at a mall, where he boasted to
employees that his wife was starting a cleaning business, the FBI
said. A woman he met there also helped connect him to the sisters,
authorities said. The FBI also used records from a gas station pay
phone on Bloomingdale Road in Glendale Heights to link the couple to
the women, records show.
After Richard Runge told his son that he had given the FBI permission
to search the house they shared, seven garbage bags were placed on the
curb for pickup, the FBI said. The FBI scoured it for evidence and
found a note written on HoneyBaked Ham stationery. It contained the
sisters' names and phone number, as well as the name and phone number
of the friend who helped arrange the job, the FBI said.
The FBI also discovered a pattern: Agents said Runge called in sick
for days after Frobel was killed, then quit his job at a Lady Foot
Locker. When the Bosnian sisters disappeared, he also called in sick
for his HoneyBaked Ham job and quit.
Tribune staff reporters Eric Ferkenhoff and Janan Hanna contributed to
this report.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/article/0,2669,ART-52481,FF.html
--
Anne Warfield
indigoace at goodsol period com
http://www.goodsol.com/cats/
Anne Warfield
Families didn't know police were hunting serial killer
By E.A. Torriero
Tribune staff reporter
June 16, 2001
Mariusz Dziubak waited four years for police to arrest the man they
say killed his sister.
He was stunned to learn that the same person was blamed for six other
murders.
"We didn't have any idea," said Dziubak, whose sister was strangled in
January 1997 and who was not told by police that they were
investigating a possible serial killer.
On Thursday, police charged Paul Runge, 31, with seven slayings. The
victims--six women and an 11-year-old girl--were killed between
January 1995 and March 1997.
Stacey Frobel, 25: Long before she met Runge at a friend's party,
Frobel had known trouble. Her first husband committed suicide in a
Florida jail and she was struggling in a second marriage. A part-time
waitress and mother with a 6-year-old son, Frobel was reported missing
the day after she attended the party. Parts of her body were found
scattered in southern Wisconsin and Illinois.
"She's just really missed," said Susan Eberly, her mother, who is
raising Frobel's son, Daniel. "It's hard raising a boy on my own
again. But he has her laugh, her mannerisms, her feet. We would all
wish that she was here raising her son."
Dzeneta "Janet" Pasanbegovic, 22, and Amela Pasanbegovic, 20: Fleeing
war-ravaged Bosnia, the sisters had been in America less than seven
months when they were murdered.
Laid off from factory jobs in suburban Chicago, the sisters met Runge
through a co-worker at HoneyBaked Ham in Bloomingdale, according to a
federal affidavit. Friends told police that the sisters were lured to
Runge's home when he promised to get them house-cleaning jobs,
according to the affidavit.
Dorota "Dorothy" Dziubak, 30: A single mother who came from Poland a
decade before her murder, Dziubak was trying to sell her Northwest
Side bungalow without a real-estate agent when a man came to the door
posing as a possible buyer. Dziubak was raped and set on fire, leaving
her 5-year-old daughter, Ashley, an orphan.
"She did everything for Ashley," said Mariusz Dziubak, her brother.
"She tried to work hard and give her a better life and make sure she
didn't have to go through things we had to go through. She wanted to
give her a chance to go to college and have a normal life."
Yolanda Gutierrez, 35, and her daughter Jessica Muniz, 11: A single
mom, Gutierrez is remembered for her love of salsa dancing and
merengue songs.
"She sang so well as a little girl that the neighbors would pay her to
sing at their parties," said her mother, Maria Rivera.
Added Gutierrez's aunt Maria Soto: "We all admired her because she was
always working, keeping her house perfectly clean and raising her
daughter all by herself. She was a mother and a father all in one."
Gutierrez was working at a state vehicle emissions test site at the
time she and her daughter were murdered.
Jessica, a pupil at Chicago's Falconer School, is remembered as
well-mannered and bright, especially in math. Police say Runge talked
his way into their apartment after Gutierrez placed a classified ad to
sell an exercise treadmill and other items. The mother and daughter
were found dead of stab wounds; their apartment had been set on fire.
Kazimiera Paruch, 43: Reeling from a divorce, Paruch was desperate to
sell her Chicago condominium and return to her native Poland, said her
daughter, Anna.
Paruch was not one to trust outsiders, her daughter said. Against the
advice of neighbors, she put a "For Sale" sign on her condominium and
was determined to sell it by herself.
"For this guy to have her trust him, he must have known exactly what
to say," she said.
http://chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/article/0,2669,SAV-0106160166,FF.html
Anne Warfield
Bad breaks thwarted cops in serial killings
Authorities sought evidence in 1 slaying as others continued
By Janan Hanna
and Eric Ferkenhoff
Tribune staff reporters
June 17, 2001
For years, Paul Frederick Runge was a suspect, and he knew it.
Five and a half months after the death and dismemberment of a young
woman in January 1995, federal and local authorities began watching
Runge.
They searched his rental car and found traces of blood, they studied
his phone records, even searched the trash bags outside his Carol
Stream house, records show. Investigators trailed him, with Runge
sometimes waving at them, tauntingly.
And through it all, Runge kept killing, police say. Through a 1996
search of his home that might have immediately sent him back to jail,
and through a DNA analysis that could have led police to him, Runge
managed to remain free as he killed five more Chicago-area women and
an 11-year-old girl, according to charges filed last week.
How Runge avoided arrest in the seven murders with which he now stands
charged is a story of police oversights, of perhaps unavoidable
technological glitches, and of plain bad luck. Whatever the reasons,
the chilling reality is that as police worked in vain to arrest Runge,
six of his alleged victims died.
Runge, 31, is described by law enforcement officials as a vicious,
brazen sexual sadist with a propensity for torture, handcuffs and
crossbows, and books with such titles as "The Eyeball Killer" and
"Bloodletter and Bad Men."
That's a far cry from the "average" kid described by neighbors in the
Oak Forest neighborhood where Runge grew up. Some saw a radical shift
in his behavior following the 1987 death of his mother, a woman whom
he described as a "saint."
Shortly after, while his father and younger brother were away on a
fishing trip, Runge lured a 14-year-old girl into his home,
blindfolded, handcuffed and brutally and repeatedly raped her over 15
hours, court records show. He was 17.
Runge pleaded guilty to kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault and
armed violence in return for a 14-year sentence. He spent just 5 years
in prison.
Runge got out of prison in 1994, moved to Carol Stream, got a job at a
Lady Foot Locker, and got engaged. He married on Jan. 27, 1995—"too
quick," he would later tell the prison psychologist.
Weeks before Runge was to marry his wife, Charlene, the first of his
alleged victims was killed. Mutilated parts of Stacey Frobel, 25, a
friend of Charlene's, were found as the month went on. Frobel had last
been seen at the couple's home, so police quickly focused on them.
By June 15, 1995, the couple were under "random" surveillance by
investigators, according to a 1996 FBI affidavit.
They used a substance called Luminol to find blood on the trunk liner
of a car Paul Runge had rented. It was Type A, the same as Frobel's,
according to the affidavit. They had a forensic dentist compare bite
marks on Frobel's body to Runge's teeth and concluded they were
"consistent." They followed the Runges' cars, watched them use pay
phones, studied their trash.
Still, the FBI and police surveillance of Runge and his wife wasn't
constant. Over two years, there were 286 times when the couple were
being watched.
The reason for the inconsistency of the watch, officials said, was its
purpose: FBI spokesman Ross Rice said authorities were focused on
finding evidence to connect the couple to the Frobel killing, not on
whether they might catch Runge committing another crime.
Sisters become victims
Even as periodic surveillance went on, two more women were killed. In
July 1995, Bosnian refugees Dzeneta Pasanbegovic, 22, and her sister
Amela, 20, were raped, strangled, dismembered and dumped in trash
bins.
Not long after the killings, the signs again pointed to Runge, and
authorities tried to make a case against him, the affidavit shows.
They found numerous links between the Runges and the Bosnian sisters,
just as they had with Frobel, the affidavit shows.
A woman who worked with Runge at a HoneyBaked Ham store in
Bloomingdale told police she helped the two Bosnian sisters contact
Runge's wife, who was supposedly starting a cleaning business.
The co-worker said she gave Runge's wife the phone number for the two
Bosnian sisters shortly before they died.
When investigators searched the Runges' garbage, the co-worker's phone
number and the names of the sisters were found. They also found
records indicating that a gas station pay phone often used by Charlene
Runge had been used to dial the sisters just before their deaths.
In the garbage investigators found notes with other women's names and
addresses: "Single. Mid-30's. Cute. Easy," one said. "Very Hot Blonde
with 2 hot sisters," another said.
In interviews with investigators, the Runges denied involvement in the
deaths of the Bosnian sisters. The day after the sisters had died,
meanwhile, Paul Runge called in sick to the HoneyBaked Ham store, the
affidavit said. He quit a few days later.
By March 1996, in the middle of the surveillance, authorities gathered
all their links between Runge and the three dead women in the
affidavit—in the hopes of getting a judge's approval to search his
house. They did and reported finding a "Viper" knife, a stun gun and a
crossbow with 29 arrows in a duffel bag.
FBI officials say they did not consider using the evidence to try to
put Paul Runge back behind bars for a violation of his parole. It
occurred to them later, however, and in June 1997, Runge was sent back
for the weapons violation that had been discovered 15 months earlier.
In those intervening months, four more people died.
Law enforcement sources now believe Runge, then working as a driver
for 7-UP company, targeted Yolanda Gutierrez and daughter Jessica
Muniz while he was making a delivery at a supermarket on Chicago's
Northwest Side. He saw a sign Gutierrez had posted, the sources said,
saying that she was selling "Hooked on Phonics," a reading program.
Runge called her and said he was interested in buying the materials,
the sources said.
The mother and daughter were sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed,
and their bodies were found in their burning apartment. Despite the
fire, investigators recovered DNA evidence from the rapist.
Investigators tested that DNA evidence against a database of known
violent offenders.
Because of his sexual assault conviction, authorities said, Runge's
DNA profile was included in a state database.
No match on DNA
However, there was no match. Runge's DNA profile was taken with an old
technology, and the evidence from the murder scene analyzed with a
newer technology. At the time, the database could not make connections
between samples tested under the old and new technologies.
Five weeks after the mother and daughter were killed, Runge killed
Kazimiera Paruch, police allege.
Two months later, Runge was sent back to prison on the parole
violation. With her husband now in jail, and knowing that
investigators were looking at her as well, Charlene Runge began
offering information.
Years later, there would be another development, thanks to updated
technology.
Last fall, a different suspect's DNA was compared to the DNA from the
mother and daughter and proved not to be a match. Because the Illinois
State Police Crime Lab has, over the past two years, been converting
the old DNA profiles in its database so that they can be compared to
more modern DNA profiles, the profiles obtained from Gutierrez and
Muniz were compared once more to the database.
This time, the result was a match to Runge, authorities said.
Tribune staff reporters Monica Davey, Cam Simpson and John-John
Williams IV contributed to this report.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/article/0,2669,ART-52486,FF.html
JonesieCat
"Anne Warfield" <indi...@aol.comfounditallanyway> wrote in message
news:3b2cceb0...@news.earthlink.net...
This is sickening. I can't figure out what the FBI does *right*? And the
Chicago cops - are they the ones who, awhile back, arrested two little boys
for rape and murder before an unrelated adult was charged with the crime
(and the families of the little boys are now suing the CPD?). All those
women killed after they knew whodunnit. My god.
JC
Anne Warfield
<cj_m.rm@thiswontwork> wrote:
>This is sickening. I can't figure out what the FBI does *right*? And the
>Chicago cops - are they the ones who, awhile back, arrested two little boys
>for rape and murder before an unrelated adult was charged with the crime
>(and the families of the little boys are now suing the CPD?). All those
>women killed after they knew whodunnit. My god.
Yes, it is heartbreaking.
The case you're thinking of is the Ryan Harris case. The families of
the accused boys are now suing the city on the boys' behalf (I have
posted a couple of articles about it).
JonesieCat
"Anne Warfield" <indi...@aol.comfounditallanyway> wrote in message
The Ryan Harris articles you've posted are probably where I read about the
lawsuit. I too always appreciate your posts. I espec apprec the update
articles on past cases, like that one. But I still can't get over this Runge
guy killing and killing while he taunted LE.
JC
Anne Warfield
<cj_m.rm@thiswontwork> wrote:
>The Ryan Harris articles you've posted are probably where I read about the
>lawsuit. I too always appreciate your posts. I espec apprec the update
>articles on past cases, like that one. But I still can't get over this Runge
>guy killing and killing while he taunted LE.
>
>JC
>
Thanks, Jonesie. :)
Unfortunately, this situation with Runge isn't anything new. Remember
how the Milwaukee police believed Daumer & handed his victim back to
him when he said that they'd just had a "lover's quarrel"? It's hard
when I read about these cases not to fret about mistakes that were
made, or think about things that could have been done differently.
JonesieCat
"Anne Warfield" <indi...@aol.comfounditallanyway> wrote in message
Omigod, yes. And Dahmer took the young guy back alright. And ate him. Or
parts of him. The escapee was just a kid as I recall, Korean maybe?, and had
a brother (??) who'd also been taken by Dahmer I think? A genuinely bizarre
and grotesque series of events. What could those cops have been thinking?
(Ya know, in the end when the cops caught up with JD and entered his apt,
the smell was apparently horrific. I could never understand how his apt
neighbors could tolerate it for as long as it went on.)
JC
Anne Warfield
<cj_m.rm@thiswontwork> wrote:
>"Anne Warfield" <indi...@aol.comfounditallanyway> wrote in message
>news:3b2ff9d2...@news.earthlink.net...
>> Unfortunately, this situation with Runge isn't anything new. Remember
>> how the Milwaukee police believed Daumer & handed his victim back to
>> him when he said that they'd just had a "lover's quarrel"? It's hard
>> when I read about these cases not to fret about mistakes that were
>> made, or think about things that could have been done differently.
>>
>
>Omigod, yes. And Dahmer took the young guy back alright. And ate him. Or
>parts of him. The escapee was just a kid as I recall, Korean maybe?, and had
>a brother (??) who'd also been taken by Dahmer I think? A genuinely bizarre
>and grotesque series of events. What could those cops have been thinking?
>(Ya know, in the end when the cops caught up with JD and entered his apt,
>the smell was apparently horrific. I could never understand how his apt
>neighbors could tolerate it for as long as it went on.)
>
>JC
>
Laotian. IIRC, he was 13. *Thirteen*. And, yes, his brother was
also a Dahmer victim. I got the impression that the cops were
thinking, "Gay + Asian = not our problem." :(
JonesieCat
"Anne Warfield" <indi...@aol.comfounditallanyway> wrote in message
A child. And yep, about the cops, I agree.
JC (just had another look at your cat pix - like them so much! - and their
names too)
Anne Warfield
<cj_m.rm@thiswontwork> wrote:
[Dahmer & 13yo Laotian victim-snip]
>A child. And yep, about the cops, I agree.
I think the cops were reprimanded, but I don't think they received any
lasting punishment.
>JC (just had another look at your cat pix - like them so much! - and their
>names too)
Thanks! They are a handful. Ace is a scaredy-cat, though: she
doesn't hide under the bed, she hides *in* the bed (inside the
boxsprings)!
JonesieCat
"Anne Warfield" <indi...@aol.comfounditallanyway> wrote in message
When our cat was just a baby 10 years ago, she was real spooky. Once I was
sure she had gotten outdoors and was gone forever because I searched high
and low, the whole house, top to bottom, and then I searched the
neighborhood. Took hours. Yep, the box spring of one of the beds, that's
where she was. Darn thing. Sure was glad to find her tho. She is still a bit
spooky for that matter. But a sweetheart. Since Christmas we've had a
rabbit in the household, and boy does she disdain him (and he wants to be
her friend!). She hisses, smacks him on the face and moves on. Poor bunny
(who has grown to giant proportions, btw, bigger than the cat). He just
hops on his way, handsome hunk that he is.
JC