Riley Fox: Mom tells of unease before girl slain

From the Chicago Tribune--

Mom tells of unease before girl slain
'I just didn't feel safe in that house,' Melissa Fox says

By Joel Hood | Tribune staff reporter
November 30, 2007

In the weeks leading up to her daughter's disappearance, Melissa Fox
sensed trouble, she said in court Thursday. Her nerves were frayed,
and she had trouble sleeping. Strange noises in the middle of the
night would wake her, and she would sometimes send her husband, Kevin,
out to investigate.

"I'd never had those feelings before," said Melissa Fox, whose
3-year-old daughter, Riley, was later found dead in a creek a few
miles from the family's Wilmington home. "I just didn't feel safe in
that house."

That was in June 2004. On Thursday, she told jurors hearing the Foxes'
federal civil rights case about a typical small-town upbringing
pockmarked by the death of her father and later the abduction and
murder of her daughter.

Will County authorities charged Kevin Fox with sexually abusing and
murdering Riley, and the father of two spent eight months in jail. He
was released in June 2005, and the case remains unsolved.

Fox is suing five detectives who investigated the case, the estate of
a sixth, a polygraph examiner, a forensic interviewer and the county,
alleging that detectives fabricated evidence and coerced an
incriminating statement from him.

"Growing up, everything was about family," Melissa Fox testified. The
close parent-child relationship continued when she became a mother,
she said, explaining that she would take Riley shopping and played
with her in the park. But it was Kevin Fox who seemed to have the
closer bond with Riley, often taking her fishing in local creeks.

"She would only let Kevin brush her hair," said Fox, whose testimony
will continue Friday. "She really loved him."

In Wilmington, parents seldom thought about having to protect their
children from harm, she said. People would leave their homes unlocked
at night and sometimes even their keys in cars.

But Melissa Fox, then a mother of two, felt unease in the old
three-bedroom home she and the family shared on South Outer Drive. A
windstorm before Riley's disappearance knocked down the back-yard
gate. Another one blew open the home's front door, damaging one of the
locks. Melissa said she looked forward to moving. She made sure to
lock the doors and secure the windows at night before she went to bed,
she said.

Riley disappeared sometime early on June 6, while Melissa Fox was in
Chicago with friends at a charity breast cancer walk. Kevin Fox has
said he was at home asleep.

The Foxes hired a private investigator who testified the family's home
showed signs of an intruder. Crime scene photos showed that laundry
baskets used to prop closed a faulty back door had been moved.

When DNA from Riley's rape kit did not match Kevin Fox's genetic
profile, he was released in 2005.

But a deposition from an FBI forensic examiner read Thursday said a
sheriff's sergeant had asked on Nov. 3, 2004 -- a week after Fox was
arrested -- to end DNA testing, and to instead focus on establishing
that Fox was indeed Riley's biological parent. The FBI agent, Brendan
Shea, stated that a statement such as the one given by Kevin Fox would
not otherwise automatically end DNA testing.

Shea stated the request came during a confusing time in the
investigation, when it was unclear what investigators wanted from him.
Kevin Fox's attorneys have maintained investigators singled out Fox as
the only possible suspect and disregarded evidence that showed
otherwise.

"I was being told to hold off for a moment to decide where next to
proceed," Shea's statement said. "Then I was told to discontinue all
the samples."

----------

jhood @tribune.com

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-fox_30nov30,1,5518745.story

--
Anne, indigoace at goodsol period com
Jewelry: http://www.prettygoodjewelry.com
Cats: http://www.goodsol.com/cats/
.

Relevant Pages

  • Riley Fox: Early focus was on victims dad, friends tell court
    ... suspect in her slaying, according to testimony Thursday in a trial to ... "He told me they were looking at Kevin, and I told him to look ... Fox and seek unspecified damages. ... Van Duyne and Colleen Hansen were on a cancer walk with Melissa Fox ...
    (alt.true-crime)
  • Detective says Kevin Fox gave details to police
    ... Detective says Fox gave details to police ... Kevin Fox and his wife, Melissa, who allege police fabricated evidence ... The Foxes are suing five Will County sheriff's detectives, ...
    (alt.true-crime)