NAPERVILLE (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A retired welder from Minnesota has been charged with first degree murder in a 1972 case in which a 15-year-old Naperville girl disappeared while riding her bike and was later found sexually assaulted and stabbed to death.
Julie Ann Hanson was 15-years old on July 7, 1972 when she disappeared while riding her bike.
Her body was found the next day in a field. Her bike nearby. She had been stabbed 36 times and was sexually assaulted.
Naperville Police Chief Robert Marshall said the sexual assault and murder of Julie Ann Hanson has haunted the family, community, and police for decades.
"Our department never in five decades gave up looking for Julie's killer," Chief Marshall said. "This was never a cold case for our police department. We continually investigated this case throughout those 49 years. We were all conscious of Julie's murder, looking for the killer; and we had Julie's picture on our desks and investigations for all these years."
The suspect, 76-year-old Barry Lee Whelpley, of Minnesota, was previously unknown to investigators. He was tied to the crime through genealogy and DNA, according to Will County State’s Attorney Jim Glasgow.
"These investigators, with all the beating law enforcement is taking in the media every day, this is what it is all about," said Will County State’s Attorney Jim Glasgow.
"These officers have stayed in touch with the family and finally have been able to give them what they had been hoping for all these years," Glasgow said.
Whelpley was 27 and living in Naperville at the time of the murder, within a mile of the Hanson home.
He was taken into custody in Minnesota, where he is awaiting extradition to Illinois. He has been charged by the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office with three counts of First-Degree Murder. His bond was set at $10,000,000.
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