[Peoria] Convicted killer says he murdered additional women
Anne Warfield
Convicted killer says he murdered additional women
Sheriff's Department officials skeptical about videotaped confession
Saturday, January 8, 2005
By DAVE HANEY
OF THE JOURNAL STAR
PEORIA - A Peoria County sheriff's captain who was a lead detective in
a 12-year-old serial murder investigation has what could be answers
about two missing Peoria-area women.
Amid a six-hour, videotaped interview between six-time convicted
killer Joseph Miller, a suburban Chicago reporter and a college
student, Miller reportedly claims he killed Stacey Morrison and
Valerie Sloan, both of whom disappeared about the same time Miller
went on his killing spree.
But authorities are skeptical, saying Miller, now 59, has fed police
lies in the past.
So far, the cases remain closed, said Peoria County sheriff's Capt.
Dave Briggs, one of the lead detectives assigned to investigating the
1993 murders of four women, which led back to Miller.
"At this point, there's no reason to reopen anything," Briggs said,
"and the video may not change that."
Briggs recently received a DVD of the interview, but he had not yet
viewed it.
The interview, recorded in December, was sent to Peoria police by
prison authorities at Pontiac Correctional Center, where Miller has
been locked up since his death row conviction in 1994 and subsequent
commutation to life in prison in 2003 by then-Gov. George Ryan.
The interviewers are a newspaper reporter from the Daily Herald in
Arlington Heights and an Illinois State University student. The ISU
student had talked with Miller for a research project during the
summer, when Miller allegedly first confessed to her that he killed
Morrison, 23, of Pekin; Sloan, 18, of Peoria; and another woman. The
prison taped the December interview.
That was not the first time Miller has said he's responsible for other
deaths. In May 2004, Miller told a Chicago Fox News reporter he killed
seven other women, murders for which he was never charged and for
which he offered no details.
Briggs said he first heard of Miller confessing to the missing women's
deaths last summer, and despite some conversations with reporters and
Stacey Morrison's mother, police have never received anything until
recently. Also, Miller has never requested to talk with police.
Miller was convicted of killing two Cook County women in the late
1970s and served 15 years in prison before he was released to Peoria
in April 1993.
Miller was out only a few months before he killed Sandra Csesznegi,
42, of Bartonville; Helen Dorrance, 26, of Rantoul; and Marcia Logue,
34, of Peoria. The bodies of all three women, who had a history of
prostitution, were dumped in rural Peoria County.
Miller's only victim who did not fit that profile was 88-year-old
Bernice Fagotte, a Peoria woman who befriended Miller, rented him a
place to live and hired him to do yard work.
Logue died from multiple stab wounds, blunt trauma and strangulation.
The other three women died of asphyxia.
Peoria County State's Attorney Kevin Lyons prosecuted Miller for the
four deaths. He could not be reached for comment Friday about Miller's
recent claims.
During the course of the recent interview, Miller said he killed
Morrison, Sloan and a woman known only as "Deb," according to a news
story that appeared last month in the Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Morrison, who had a history of prostitution, was last seen May 24,
1993, months before the slayings. Doctors said she had the mental
capacity of a 10-year-old, but she also ran with the wrong crowd and
had bouts with alcohol and drugs, her mother Linda Morrison has said.
Sloan, 18, stopped making her daily telephone calls or visits to her
family sometime between the end of July or beginning of August in
1993.
A task force investigating the three prostitute murders determined
that Morrison and Sloan, each a known prostitute working the same
Morton Square Park area where Miller picked up the others, were
unaccounted for.
"From the investigation, there was no evidence he was responsible,
although some detectives at the time had a feeling he was," Briggs
said. "I've sat with (Miller), interviewed him and know his past
history. We worked night and day and never had any evidence to link
him to anyone else."
The sheriff's captain believes Miller's "confession" is strictly for
attention and to be in the presence of a woman, the female college
student.
"He's a manipulator and a murderer," Briggs said of Miller. "He's done
this kind of thing in the past."
Still, authorities do not plan to cross out the chance of bringing
closure to the missing women and their families.
"We're going to do everything necessary - including if that means
reopening the case - if there are some legitimate leads," he said. "I
just hope he's not lying and playing with the families."
http://pjstar.com/stories/010805/TRI_B582H9UH.045.shtml
--
Anne Warfield
indigoace at goodsol period com
http://www.goodsol.com/cats/