Now that Brian Dugan all set to rot on death row for the rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico, DuPage County States Attorney Joseph Birkett wants to find out if he killed others.
Dugan has been convicted of three murders -- he confessed to killing Melissa Ackerman, 7, of Somonauk in 1985, and Donna Schnorr, 27, of Geneva in 1984. He is serving life sentences for those but Birkett suspects that he could have killed up to four others, according to the Sun-Times.
Birkett said he wants to vigorously investigate four unsolved murders for links to the child killer. He declined to release information about three of the cases which come from McHenry and Kane counties.
But one case he did agree to talk about was that of Kathryn Alice Pollock, 64, who was found dead in Kane County on April 4, 1983.
Pollock, a widow, was found bludgeoned to death near in her Aurora home. Her car was stolen, and police recovered it several blocks away.
The crime seems to fit a pattern with Dugan who stalked the Chicago suburbs, knocking on doors to ask for handyman work. If no one was home Dugan would burglarize the homes, and sometimes, if people were home, he would kill them.
Dugan's attorney, however, contends that if Dugan committed other crimes, he would have admitted to it by now.
"I have talked to Brian in the past about other cases. He didn't do anything else. If they think they got something else, let them bring it on," said attorney Steven Greenberg.
Birkett says he wants to get to the bottom of this case, and the other unsolved murders, so that Dugan doesn’t attempt to stay his execution by offering to help police solve them --- similar to what serial killer Ted Bundy did in the 1970s.
Greenberg says that notion makes no sense.
"He uses it, as Joe (Birkett) says, as a bargaining chip. So why wouldn't he have used that as a bargaining chip before placing himself in jeopardy before this jury?"
Dugan will face a judge and formally receive his death sentence on Dec. 16th.
