The attorney for a mother charged with killing her 28-year-old daughter with disabilities said it is not “an open-and-shut case.”
A Cook County grand jury indicted Bonnie Liltz, 55, on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the death of her daughter, Courtney.
On May 27, Schaumburg police found both Liltz and her severely disabled daughter unresponsive.
In a suicide note, Liltz, a two-time cancer survivor with ongoing major medical issues, wrote, "I am having difficulty breathing now. If I go first, what will happen to her? I don't want her to live in an institution the rest of her life. She is my life."
Liltz survived an overdose but her daughter did not.
"We will be entering a plea of not guilty,” attorney Thomas Glasgow said standing in the lobby of the Rolling Meadows courthouse with his client by his side.
"This is someone who ended up taking care of a child who was cast off twice before by society and took her in,” he said, noting she bathed Courtney, dressed her, brushed her hair, kept her in pristine condition day-in-and-day-out. “There was no one else in the world that would have cared for Courtney the way that Bonnie did.”
In Springfield lawmakers are debating cuts in assistance to families, like Litlz, with disabled children.
“Now with the proposed budget another $33 million taken from this, what are families who have disabled children to do,” Glasgow asked.
The lack of available, quality residential facilities for the handicapped and the threatened cuts are part on the context of this case, the elephant in the room, Glasgow called it.
“The elephant is the underfunding for people with disabilities when they reach a certain age,” he said.
Liltz's case will be heard in domestic violence court.
“It is not an open and shut case,” Glasgow said. “This is something that bares examination not only through the court system but by society as a whole.”
The next court date is July 8.
Editor’s note: Carol Marin is a parent of a child with disabilities.
