Two men suspects in 1993 restaurant killings at Palatine

PALATINE, Ill. -- Police were holding two suspects Friday in the unsolved 1993 killings of seven people at a suburban Chicago restaurant, renewing interest in a case marked by well-publicized leads that later fizzled out.

One of the men made a videotaped confession, according to numerous media outlets who all cited unnamed sources.

Police took the men into custody Thursday after making a DNA match between saliva from one of them and a half-eaten chicken dinner found at the Brown's Chicken & Pasta restaurant the night of the shootings, according to media reports.

Palatine police confirmed Friday that the two men were suspects and a DNA match had been made. They declined to give additional details but late Friday scheduled a news conference for Saturday afternoon to "announce the arrests of two defendants and the successful conclusion" of the case.

"The police are asking for the patience of the media and the public as they continue to gather the final pieces of evidence to bring these brutal slayings to a successful prosecution and conclusion," Palatine Police Cmdr. Jim Haider said earlier Friday.

Cook County State's Attorney spokeswoman Patti Simone said the investigation is continuing but refused to comment on any details.

The arrests were the latest twist in a case that baffled police and residents here for almost a decade -- and one in which police and news media have identified possible breaks in the case that never developed.

Thursday's developments renewed the buzz in Palatine, just northwest of Chicago. Bus driver Joe Boron, 52, got to the school district garage Friday morning to find co-workers gathered around a television set watching the latest reports.

The passing years dimmed talk and gossip about the case, Boron said, "until yesterday. It really came into focus again. We'll be glad to know the streets are safe again."

Past false alarms regarding arrests and suspects tempered one family's relief at the latest developments in the case.

"We hope this is a break we have been waiting for during the past nine years," said Jennifer Schilling, now a Democratic state representative in Wisconsin. Her parents, Richard and Lynn Wiese Ehlenfeldt, owned the restaurant and were among the seven victims.

Media reports identified the two men as former classmates at a Palatine high school and said one of the suspects was a former Brown's Chicken employee who police had interviewed before about the crime. One of the men was living in Carpentersville, the other in Indianapolis when they were taken into custody, according to news reports.

A former girlfriend of one of the men was picked up this spring for questioning in an unrelated case and told police details of the Brown's Chicken case that had not been made public, according to media reports. She reportedly also said she overheard one of the men admit to the shootings.

Police then questioned the two suspects, who denied involvement, but authorities collected saliva samples to get their DNA.

Seven people were slain around closing time on Jan. 8, 1993. The victims were forced inside a cooler and a walk-in refrigerator.

Their bodies were found about 2:30 the next morning when parents of one employee called police because their son did not come home from work.

Police thought the slayings happened shortly after 9:10 p.m., when a cash register rang up a final sale: a $5 chicken dinner that included fries, a biscuit and a drink. Officers found scraps of a chicken meal in a trash can inside the restaurant.

The victims were the Ehlenfeldts and employees Thomas Mennes, Marcus Nellsen, Guadalupe Maldonado, Michael C. Castro and Rico L. Solis.

A large task force investigated the case at one point, but that number dwindled to a handful of officers in recent years.

The Better Government Association had criticized Palatine police's handling of the case. But an August 2000 report by a team of lawyers and police appointed by the Illinois State Crime Commission defended police and disputed the earlier criticism.