 Hallsville murder probe continues
DeWitt Co. officials have nothing new to report on deaths of mom, son
BY JAMES WASHBURN
THE COURIER
Published Thursday, July 13, 2006
CLINTON - DeWitt County officials confirmed Wednesday a 28-year-old pregnant woman and her 9-year-old son were stabbed to death inside their Hallsville residence late Monday or early Tuesday.
But officials had nothing new to report this morning about leads or a possible arrest in the double-murder case that has rattled the handful of residents who live in tiny Hallsville.
DeWitt County Sheriff Roger Massey said police responded to a 911 call at 3:41 p.m. Tuesday after a neighbor discovered the slain bodies of 28-year-old Katie R. Griffieth and her son, Kendall C. Griffieth, inside their home at 202 Harvest St., Hallsville.
"Further investigation has also determined that we have a third victim - that being Katie's unborn child," Massey said. "She was approximately five to six months pregnant."
Massey said the Griffieths died "as a result of multiple stab wounds," but would not elaborate about the extent of the injuries.
He said no arrests have been made.
Investigators, he said, have interviewed dozens of "persons of interest" from Hallsville and Clinton, but he would not speculate about when an arrest might be made. He also would not comment about what kind of weapon was used, whether police had recovered the weapon or whether the assailant used force to enter the residence.
"We do not believe at all that this is a random act (of violence)," he said. "We don't believe that any other individual in the community is at risk because of this particular crime.
"We're moving quickly in the investigation and we'll try to provide further information as quickly as we can."
Griffieth had two children visiting a relative out-of-state as well as two other children - a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old - who were in the home when the murders took place, he said. The children, unharmed, were taken to a hospital in Clinton and later placed in temporary custody of the Department of Children and Family Services, he added.
"We've enlisted the assistance of the Illinois State Police ... as well as the Clinton police," Massey said. "And we're continuing an intense investigation.
"We're working diligently on (the case). We've got a very good team together and I've got confidence that we'll get this thing solved."
Massey was unavailable this morning to provide an update of the investigation.
Lincoln couple Joey and Shannon Plotke have lived in recent weeks with relatives in Hallsville at a home adjacent to the Griffieth residence and they said a neighbor made the 911 call after the two unharmed children prompted him to check on their mother's well-being.
Prior to the press conference Wednesday, the Plotkes recalled their conversation with the neighbor, who was the first adult to see the slain mother and son hours after they were murdered.
They said he told them the toddlers' clothing was soaked with blood and blood also was smeared on a plastic slide in their front yard, where dozens of toys littered the overgrown lawn.
A bloodstained T-shirt, which may have been worn by the assailant, also was found inside the home, they said. He told them he called police immediately after he saw the mother's throat was slashed and her abdomen was covered in blood, they said.
Joey Plotke said Griffieth reported an attempted break-in a few days prior to Tuesday's murders, but Massey Wednesday would not confirm that report.
Joey's grandmother, Jean Plotke - who also was a foster parent of Roger Griffieth, the children's father - said her foster son had been separated from his estranged wife the past two years and they planned to divorce.
Jean Plotke said Roger Griffieth, who lives in Clinton, was working his factory job at the time of the killings.
Hallsville, an unincorporated village with fewer than 100 residents, is on Illinois 10 just east of the Logan/DeWitt county line.
Massey said Tuesday's double homicide may be the first murders in the tiny community, the first at least since the 1960s.
"It's a town of three blocks," Shannon Plotke said. "It's a quiet town."
I think it's obvious what needs to be done here. We live in a society obsessed with violence and KNIVES. It's everywhere in our culture. Cases like this just prove how prolific knives are in America, how dangerous assault knives are, and how easily they may be used to take an innocent life. We need to remember the children from Clinton. The two children that died, and the children left behind without a mother or brother.
This is a desperate time, and desperate times call for desperate measures. We need to have the courage and the resolve to enact common-sense knife restriction laws. Without knives, there wouldn't be knife crime! There is no reason that a human being NEEDS a knife either. Knives and assault knives are made for one purpose: to kill. It's time, we need to think about our children and make our society safer by getting these knives off the streets.
Sound familiar? |
