Dugan Suspected in Up to Four Other Murders
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.
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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.
First Published: Nov 13, 2009 9:58 AM CST
A DuPage County, Illinois jury has sentenced Brian Dugan to death for the February 25, 1983, abduction, rape, and murder of ten-year-old Jeanine Nicarico from Naperville.

The jury has been empaneled for a six-week sentencing hearing to determine Dugan's eligibility for the death penalty. Closing arguments lasted for nearly six hours last Tuesday. The jury then deliberated for five hours until 10 pm, when the judge said that the jury had reached a verdict.

The jurors were then called into the courtroom, but in a surprising turn of events, the judge announced that the jury would like to continue deliberations. He sequestered them overnight, and deliberations continued Wednesday morning. The jury then announced that it had sentenced Dugan to death. He is now also suspected of committing four other murders. 

Two men from Aurora, Alejandro Hernandez and Rolando Cruz, were first convicted of the crime on February 22, 1985. The jury deadlocked on Stephen Buckley, also from Aurora. On November 8 of that year, Dugan's lawyer revealed that his client, charged with the rape and murder of seven-year-old Melissa Ackerman of Somonauk, was also the lone murderer of Nicarico. Dugan was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of Melissa Ackerman and Donna Schnorr, a twenty-seven-year-old woman from Geneva.

Charges against Buckley were subsequently dropped in March 5, 1987. On July 14, 1994, the Illinois Supreme Court overturned Cruz's conviction and ordered a new trial. Hernandez's conviction was later overturned as well. A judge acquitted Cruz of the crime on November 3, 1995, and charges against Hernandez were later dismissed.

Refinements in DNA testing allowed law enforcement officials to narrow down the list of suspects. In 2002, DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett stated that DNA certainly proved that Dugan was involved in the murder. He was charged in November 29, 2005, and pleaded guilty on July 18 of this year.