A Cook County prosecutor said Wednesday that the plot to kill a Bridgeview woman this month was not the first scheme plotted against her life. Assistant State`s Atty. Anthony Carballo told Circuit Judge Robert Bastone that investigators have learned Michael Piskorek, 36, and his girlfriend, Charlotte McElree, 39, both of Tempe, Ariz., sent $500 and offered up to $10,000 to a distant relative of Piskorek`s, requesting he kill Eileen Piskorek in December.
But nothing ever became of that attempt, and Piskorek and McElree are now charged with hatching a plot to help Piskorek kill his estranged wife.
On Wednesday, Bastone set McElree`s bond at $250,000. Near her stood Piskorek, who with her son, James Heitz, 17, remains in custody without bond. Piskorek was arrested in Chicago and McElree in Tempe on Jan. 5. She was extradited to Illinois to stand trial for her alleged role in the plan, in which Heitz also participated, Carballo said.
Carballo told Bastone that the three devised a plot in which Piskorek would fly into Chicago under an alias, kill his wife in a manner that would look like a bungled robbery, then return to Arizona using another alias.
On Christmas Day, Carballo said, McElree called her daughter, Jennifer, 19, of southwest suburban Bridgeview and described the plan where Jennifer McElree would pick up Piskorek at O`Hare International Airport. She was to bring a handgun Piskorek was going to send her, Carballo said.
Law officers pulled the plan apart when Jennifer McElree told them what was planned and helped authorities obtain audio and videotapes of family members describing the plot.
Jed Stone, attorney for Charlotte McElree, said no evidence was presented to indicate that she was a threat to anyone.
Bastone ordered that she have no contact with her daughter or Eileen Piskorek and that she remain in Cook County if her family is able to post her bond.
