(WBBM NEWSRADIO) - A man who was initially sentenced to death for the 1985 rape and murder of a Downers Grove girl has been granted a clemency hearing. It’s scheduled for next week. And it came as a surprise to the girl’s family.
Bridget Drobney was 16 when she was with family in downstate Gillespie, south of Springfield, for a wedding. She was driving alone at night when she was pulled over by three men who had a red flashing light on their station wagon, posing as police. She was raped and murdered in a cornfield.
Robert Turner, according to prosecutors, admitted he stabbed her.
“She was screaming too loud so I stuck her,” Turner said.
Kelly Drobney Weaver, Bridgett’s sister, was 12 at the time.
“The only word I can say is- devastation- life as we knew it was no longer. Once it all settled down it’s just this overwhelming feeling of void, there’s always someone missing,” Drobney Weaver said. "There’s not a day I don’t go by thinking of Bridget. I’m constantly, we all are, thinking, ‘where would Bridget be now, what would she be doing?’
“I felt like we were beyond the grief and grieving chapter and we opened up our new chapter to celebrating Bridget’s life and moving forward with that, and not having to go back to the dark place, and unfortunately, here we are again,” added Drobney Weaver.
She said the family was not notified about the clemency hearing by the state and learned about it from a retired prosecutor. The Drobney family said they will attend next week’s hearing.
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