A northern Illinois couple who used obituaries to find targets for burglaries has been sentenced to prison.
Twenty-six-year-old Jason K. Werner pleaded guilty and was sentenced Friday to six years in prison.
His wife, 25-year-old Jacquelyn S. Buchholz, was sentenced Monday to nine years. The couple is from Johnsburg, in McHenry County.
Prosecutors say Buchholz planned the burglaries by scanning obituaries to find out when mourners would be away from home for funeral services. The couple then stole from at least five homes of relative of the deceased.
They were arrested in September after a burglary attempt in the Chicago suburb of Barrington during which the homeowner returned and caught them. Fleeing in a hurry, they dropped a cellphone that police were able to trace back to the pair.
