Detailed update on Marilyn Lemak,41 y.o.Mommy who poisoned & suffocated 3 child-slaves to death in IL,more details emerge on state of mind of Marilyn & modus operandi
Joe1orbit
As I'm sure all of you MUST be aware by now, a 41 year old Mommy and
registered nurse named Marilyn Lemak is being charged with three counts of
murder, for having poisoned AND suffocated all three of her child-slaves, aged
3, 6, and 7, to death, Thursday night, in Illinois. I am pleased and proud to
provide continuing updates on this rather high profile triple murder. Both CNN
and MSNBC mentioned this case this morning, and actually had pretty decent 3-5
minute segments. Still, new details are continuing to emerge, hence my posting
of this lengthy update.
We learn below that the poison used by Mommy Marilyn consisted of aspirin,
anti-depressents, and sedatives. The poison was apparently only INTENDED by
Mommy Marilyn to make the 3 slaves DROWSY, not to actually kill them. She then
manually strangled all 3 to death, with her own hands, as they slept. Then she
took the same poisonous mixture of drugs, KNOWING that it was UNLIKELY to kill
her, and fell into a deep sleep. When she woke up LATE the next morning, she
called 911. AFTER calling 911, she slashed her own arm, right near the spot
where blood is regularly drawn by nurses. She DID sever her ARTERY, but because
she wisely called 911 BEFORE slashing herself, they arrived in time to rush her
to the hospital and get the severed artery repaired before she could bleed to
death. A severed artery in the arm CAN cause death due toblood loss, if not
treated promptly.
Mommy Marilyn is still expected to be transferred from the hospital to a
prison, later today, then to appear in court tomorrow morning. Cops confirm
that our triple murderess HAS been talking to detectives, but refuse to say
exactly what she has been talking about. Marilyn IS technically eligible to be
legally murdered via the death penalty, but being the biological Mommy of all
three victims, there is almost no chance that prosecutors will seek the DP.
Two of the 3 drugs used to poison the slaves are prescription drugs. The
third was only aspirin. We do get more info on Marilyn's marriage to doctor
David, as well as extensive comments from Daddy David's father.
You can view two color photos of the 7 and 6 year old slaughtered slaves at
the following URL:
http://chicagotribune.com/multimedia/image/display/0,1224,19837-14367-1-4,
00.html
You can read an archive of articles on this family massacre, and hear an
audio clip too, by going to the following URL:
http://chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/article/0,1051,ART-24630,00.html
And just click on the specific articles on the left side, or the audio box on
the right side.
Another interesting detail is that according to Marilyn's father-in-law, she
had "plummeted into a deep depression after giving birth to their third child,
Thomas. She would emerge from the depression off and on, but last year she sank
into it again and never came out." He goes on to say: "My son told me that last
year Marilyn woke up one morning and said she didn't love him anymore and that
was it." It is interesting to me that Mommy marilyn made NO attempt to kill
hubby David, even AFTER having killed the 3 slaves. I think she wanted to make
him SUFFER as much as possible, and she knew that killing him wouldn't make him
suffer, it would just terminate his existance for all of eternity. BUt since
she knew that he 'loved' their three slaves, she realized that killing all
three, while leaving him alive & not even TRYING to physically harm him, would
cause him to suffer for YEARS, with mental/emotional trauma.
Take care, JOE
The following two news articles both appear courtesy of the 3/7/99 online
edition of The Chicago Tribune newspaper:
MOM CHARGED IN SLAYINGS
By Janan Hanna
and Eric Ferkenhoff
Tribune Staff Writers
March 7, 1999
DuPage County prosecutors charged the mother of three slain Naperville children
with murder Saturday, alleging she had given them a combination of drugs to
make them drowsy and then smothered them with her hands as they slept.
Sources told the Tribune that Marilyn Lemak, 41, who is a registered nurse,
then took what they believe was the same concoction of aspirin, antidepressants
and sedatives Thursday night.
When she awoke the next morning, she called 911, officials said. Then she
slashed her arm at the spot where physicians and nurses take blood, the sources
said.
She was taken to Edward Hospital in Naperville, where doctors repaired a
severed artery. Sources said she was heavily sedated and had been placed under
police guard.
State's Atty. Joseph Birkett said Saturday that Lemak was expected to be moved
Sunday from the hospital to the Naperville Police Department for booking and
then to the DuPage County Jail in Wheaton, where she would await a bond hearing
Monday morning.
She is being represented by Geneva attorney John F. Donahue, who declined to
comment Saturday.
Birkett declined to discuss details of the case, including the possible motive
for the slayings. Law enforcement sources said Lemak had given investigators a
statement, but Birkett would not discuss its content.
"Cases where children are murdered defy logic and reason," said Birkett, who
appeared to be struggling to fight back his emotions at times during the news
conference.
"Why people do horrible things to children is not for me to think about or to
consider. Just the thought of it is aggravating, and no one can provide the
answers to that question and we are not going to seek to answer that question
now," he said.
"If the answers to that question come during the course of the follow-up
investigation, fine. But there's no reason to kill three beautiful children.
There isn't."
Birkett said that if convicted, Lemak would be eligible for the death penalty,
though he had not yet decided whether to seek it.
According to Birkett and investigators, 6-year-old Emily Lemak and 3-year-old
Thomas Lemak were killed first, soon after arriving home from school Thursday
afternoon. They were given the medicine to make them drowsy, which prompted
investigators to believe that their killer had not wanted them to suffer pain.
After the children were asleep, Birkett said, Lemak allegedly went to their
beds and placed a hand over their mouths and pinched their noses until they
suffocated.
Lemak's oldest son, 7-year-old Nicholas, arrived home around dusk, following
after-school activities. Birkett said he received the same drugs as his younger
siblings and, once he fell asleep, was smothered as well.
Police did not learn of the crime until Lemak called 911 around 11 a.m. Friday.
When police arrived at the home, they found the two boys in their beds and the
girl in her parents' room, investigators said. There were no signs of physical
trauma -- bruises or cuts -- on their bodies.
Lemak was on the floor near her daughter.
Soon afterward, her estranged husband, David, 41, arrived. He ran to the home,
but police stopped him and led him to a squad car, where he sat inside talking
with officers. He broke into sobs shortly after, neighbors said.
Two of the drugs allegedly used on the children are prescription medicines. The
third was an over-the-counter aspirin derivative, sources said.
Birkett said toxicology tests would be conducted in the next few weeks to
determine exactly what substances were in the children's bloodstreams.
"This case, as with the murder of any child, obviously no words can express
what the family is going through," Birkett said. "And I don't think words would
be sufficient to try to explain why anyone would engage in this kind of
behavior, so we're not going to get into that discussion."
Although investigators would not speculate about a possible motive, Marilyn and
David Lemak had been going through a divorce, and David Lemak recently had
moved out of the family's three-story Victorian home at 28 S. Loomis St., in
the heart of Naperville's historic district.
The couple married Sept. 7, 1985, in Winfield. After David Lemak completed his
medical residency in Ohio, the couple moved back to DuPage County. They bought
their home in 1991, in anticipation of starting their family.
Marilyn Lemak worked part time as a nurse, but often was seen walking or
driving her children to and from school every day--or jogging around the
neighborhood.
Gary Espey, father of one of Nicholas' best friends, described her as "the
typical Naperville mother. . . . She was always there picking up the kids after
school and allowing a bunch of kids to come home to play."
All three children attended Ellsworth Elementary School, just a few blocks away
from the home. The youngest was a preschooler at the YMCA Safe and Sound Day
Care program that operates out of Ellsworth.
Another Ellsworth parent described Marilyn Lemak as very involved in school
activities and said she recently helped organize a clothing exchange as a
school fundraiser.
In April 1997, Marilyn Lemak sought a divorce, but the two reconciled. The case
was dismissed the following August.
She filed again for divorce in June 1998. The couple went through counseling
and mediation, agreeing to child custody and visitation rights.
David Lemak "had regular visitation schedules with his children," Birkett said
Saturday. "He was, according to all the information we have, a very concerned
and caring father and saw his children regularly."
The couple's divorce file stated that David Lemak "reduced his work schedule
the end of April 1998 in order to have more time to spend with his family." He
also stated that he made breakfast, helped dress the children and drove them to
activities when he was not working.
As the divorce case proceeded, Marilyn Lemak asked the court last summer for
exclusive possession of their home because living with David Lemak was "causing
serious episodes of stress which have resulted in physical symptoms," according
to court records.
David Lemak fought to stay in the house, saying it "is not in the best
interests of the parties' children to remove the respondent (David Lemak) from
the marital residence . . . and it is in the best interests of the children to
continue to have a close and loving relationship with their father on a daily
basis."
He also argued that the mortgage on the house is $3,500 a month and that he had
been paying it. Meanwhile, according to documents he filed with the court, his
wife had been working only sporadically at Dreyer Medical Clinic in Aurora and
her annual income had dropped from a high of $18,875 in 1996 to less than
$5,000 last year.
The judge denied her petition in September. Nevertheless, about three weeks
before the slayings, David Lemak moved out of the house and found another
residence on the same street.
But the Lemaks appeared to try to maintain their loving relationships with
their children.
Emily had long admired a neighbor's cats, so just three weeks ago her parents
bought her a calico of her own, which she named Cupcake.
Birkett said David Lemak, an emergency room physician at Hinsdale Hospital and
Bolingbrook Medical Center, "is obviously grief-stricken."
"Words can't express what he, his family, his friends and neighbors are going
through. He is numb," Birkett added. "I just tried to let him know what's
taking place today and that we'll do all we can to help him."
At the family house in Naperville, impromptu memorials sprouted.
Just beyond the yellow police tape in a corner of the Lemaks' front yard, a
Sugar Grove carpenter placed three 5-foot crosses, one for each of the
children, their names written in green marker.
Greg Zanis, 48, said he was contacted by the mother of a classmate of Nicholas'
who asked him to plant the crosses, which he does frequently as a memorial to
victims of homicide and drunken-driving accidents.
"This is not supposed to happen," Zanis said.
Noting the Victorian home's beauty, he added: "Doesn't it look just like a doll
house? It's gorgeous. Now it's a murder site. It's defiled ground."
At the bottom of the crosses, visitors placed flowers, miniature teddy bears
and Beanie Babies.
Funeral arrangements for the children were being handled by Beidelman-Kunsch
Funeral Home, 117 W. Van Buren Ave., Naperville. No date or time had been set
Saturday night.
Tribune staff writers Ted Gregory and Jeff Coen contributed to this report.
-------------------------------------------------------
LEMAK TO DAD: 'YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW'
By John Chase
Tribune Staff Writer
March 7, 1999
Bundled in a winter coat, his eyes reddened with tears, and robbed of sleep,
Albert Lemak stopped shoveling his driveway Saturday to describe how his oldest
son, David, came to him about a year ago to say his wife, Marilyn, no longer
wanted to be married to him.
"He came over bawling like a baby, saying she had just told him she didn't want
to be married to him anymore," Albert said. "And he had no idea why."
Neither did his family. "We didn't know that much about it," said Albert Lemak,
a retired engineer. "And now we know too much."
As DuPage County authorities prepared to charge his daughter-in-law with
murdering his three grandchildren, Albert Lemak proudly described how his son
grew up to become a doctor, met a young nurse named Marilyn Morrissey and had
three beautiful children -- two boys and a girl.
And he recounted the events of Friday, when he arrived at a family friend's
house to find his son crying and shaking his head.
"What's the matter, Dave?" the father asked.
"You don't want to know," his son told him. "You don't want to know."
Albert Lemak said he had ventured out of his house -- the home in the Pleasant
Hill neighborhood near Wheaton where David Lemak grew up -- because he had to
do something, anything.
He said he and other family members knew that Marilyn and David Lemak were
going through a divorce. But the matter "was going amicably and
constructively," according to Marilyn Lemak's attorney.
"Real progress was being made, especially in the emotional issues of child
custody and visitation," said attorney Daniel Kuhn, adding that David Lemak had
moved out of the family's three-story, 19th Century Victorian home earlier this
year.
Marilyn Lemak was "very even keeled," said Kuhn, who knew of no instances in
which the police had been called because of a domestic dispute at the
cranberry-colored home in a historic section of Naperville.
The couple met while David Lemak was attending medical school at Rush Medical
College on Chicago's West Side and she was finishing her nursing degree. After
David Lemak graduated in 1984, Marilyn followed him to Ohio State University,
where he completed a fellowship in emergency room medicine, Albert Lemak said.
Married in September 1985, they eventually moved back to the Chicago area,
where both their families live. David Lemak practices emergency medicine at
Hinsdale Hospital and Bolingbrook Medical Center. She worked part time as a
nurse.
Growing up, David Lemak attended St. John the Baptist Elementary School in
Winfield -- noodling on the guitar and playing basketball.
He took up wrestling at St. Francis High School in Wheaton. But David Lemak
soon set his mind on becoming a doctor, put aside other activities, immersed
himself in biochemistry and graduated in 1976.
"He was practically a straight-A student," Albert Lemak said as he struggled to
maintain his composure and talk to neighbors who came by to offer consolation
and help.
After graduating from Loyola University in Chicago, David Lemak immediately
went on to medical school and met Marilyn.
"She was a nice girl. There was nothing unusual about her," Albert Lemak said.
"She was a very polite girl. We all thought a lot of her."
The couple began to have marital problems, and Marilyn Lemak filed for divorce
in April 1997, according to court records. The request was withdrawn four
months later but refiled again last June.
Albert Lemak said his son had told him that his wife had plummeted into a deep
depression after giving birth to their third child, Thomas. She would emerge
from the depression off and on, but last year she sank into it again and never
came out, Albert Lemak said.
He said David Lemak told him last year that "she woke up one morning and said
she didn't love him anymore and that was it."
Though the divorce was described by attorneys as not especially contentious,
Marilyn Lemak asked the court last summer for exclusive possession of their
home because living with David was causing stress that led to "physical
symptoms," according to court records.
David Lemak fought that request, saying that he was paying the $3,500 mortgage
on their 1872 Victorian house. The judge denied her petition in September.
An order signed by a judge Jan. 19 indicated that the couple had reached an
agreed order regarding visitation and custody. The order did not detail the
terms.
They were scheduled to appear in court for a status hearing on the case Feb.
25, but neither appeared, according to a clerk at the DuPage County clerk's
office.
News of the slayings and charges shook the family's friends and neighbors, who
remembered the Lemaks as a pair of loving parents very involved in the lives of
Nicholas, 7; Emily, 6; and Thomas, 3.
Rev. John Sebahar married the couple when he was pastor of St. John the Baptist
Catholic Church in Winfield. He said Albert Lemak called him Friday after
hearing that his three grandchildren had been slain. "I told him I would say a
prayer," Sebahar said.
Jim Ashley, 18, a lifeguard at the Naperville Racquet Club, met the three Lemak
children while teaching swimming in the summer of 1997. The older two were
chatty, bright and well-liked by the instructors, he said.
While Ashley had little contact with Marilyn Lemak, he said David Lemak was
attentive and often asked about his children's progress. Emily, he said,
insisted on swimming with her Barbies.
"She would always play with her dolls, and she was as happy as can be. She
never showed up without them," Ashley said. "Nicholas and Emily talked
constantly."
Then he thought about the murders. "This is something so horrendous," Ashley
said, "and so strange."
In fact, news of the gruesome deaths was all the more stunning because the
expression "typical American family" was practically a mantra for neighbors
describing the Lemaks.
They were said to be very proud of their home, which once was occupied by a
North Central College president, neighbors said. It has won several awards for
restoration and beautification.
The Lemaks bought the Victorian on Loomis Street in 1991 for $405,000 from Mark
and Susan Phelps, according to records, and redid its striking paint job. "They
wanted to change it because they didn't want it known as the Phelps house,"
Susan Phelps said. "She was always cordial and very excited about the home.
"When they bought the home from us, they were expecting their first child. They
even bought some of our children's outgrown toys."
Tom Klingbeil, 57, who lives across the alley, said the Lemaks and their two
dogs -- yellow and black Labrador retrievers -- and kitten were "a quiet
family, an ideal family. The parents spent a lot of time with their kids."
David Lemak had moved out earlier this year and into a home that he rented in
the neighborhood on the same street, according to other neighbors.
Nicholas, who classmates said loved military stories, "used to drive around in
this little electric police car," Klingbeil said. Emily "looked like a little
'60s flower child" with her blond hair and loose-fitting dresses.
Albert Lemak said his three grandchildren were supposed to come over to his
house for supper Saturday and spend the evening. "We were all supposed to eat
and just have a good time," he said.
Now, his younger son, Mark, is considering flying from his home in northern
California to be with his brother.
As Albert Lemak spoke, a neighbor walked up and offered to finish off the job
of clearing his driveway. At first, Lemak declined. But a couple of minutes
later he began to weep.
Shovel in hand, the neighbor told him, "I'll finish this."
Lemak turned, headed up the driveway and closed the garage door behind him.
Tribune staff writers Phat X. Chiem and Flynn McRoberts contributed to this
report.
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David Proctor
Joe - is there any reason why that post was 21K? Surely you could have
snipped a few things out. 21K for a non-binaries newsgroup is a bit much
(for some people, anyway).
DaveP
Joe1orbit
"David Proctor" <daproc@spam_this.umpires.com> Wrote:
>Joe - is there any reason why that post was 21K?
Hello,
Because Marilyn Lemak, and any person who manages to successfully slaughter 3
or more human victims, is worthy of receiving hundreds of K's of attention and
coverage to Usenet, and to my mailing List.
> Surely you could have
>snipped a few things out.
No.
>21K for a non-binaries newsgroup is a bit much
>(for some people, anyway).
Then stop reading my posts.
Take care, JOE
>
>DaveP
>
>
></PRE></HTML>
David Proctor
Joe1orbit wrote in message <19990309070145...@ng-fp1.aol.com>...
> Because Marilyn Lemak, and any person who manages to successfully
slaughter 3
>or more human victims, is worthy of receiving hundreds of K's of attention
and
>coverage to Usenet, and to my mailing List.
They are also worthy of receiving the death penalty.
>> Surely you could have
>>snipped a few things out.
>
> No.
Why not?
>>21K for a non-binaries newsgroup is a bit much
>>(for some people, anyway).
>
> Then stop reading my posts.
Some of us do not have the option of ignoring you.
DaveP