Franklin A. Wanland left tantalizing clues implicating himself in the murder of Gladys Nelson, 80, in her Harvard home nine days ago.
But when Wanland took his own life on Saturday, besieged by police in a rural McHenry back yard, he took his knowledge of the facts of the case with him to the grave.
So police found themselves this week with their prime suspect–and primary witness to the crime–dead. Now they are left sifting through the evidence to show with certainty that Wanland was indeed the killer, and that he committed the crime alone.
“If we can place him in the house, then we’ll be more certain,” said Harvard Police Chief Kenneth Mrozek Monday. “I believe the physical evidence still being analyzed by the state crime lab will prove he was there.”
McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren was equally sure that Wanland was responsible for Nelson’s death, the first murder in Harvard since 1979.
“I wish we had been able to talk to him. I’m sure we could have gotten a confession,” Nygren said Monday.
Acting on an anonymous tip, sheriff’s police found Wanland on Saturday afternoon in a tool shed behind a residence in Lawrence, an unincorporated community about a mile northwest of Harvard.
“They could see he was apparently clutching some object in both hands, and as they approached him,” Nygren said. “The officers told him several times to `drop it’ and surrender.”
Instead, Wanland shouted, “Go ahead and shoot me,” and raised the object to his chest as police closed in, Nygren said.
It wasn’t until they subdued Wanland and rolled him on his side that they saw a knife protruding from his chest.
Wanland was pronounced dead at the scene.
He was the prime suspect in the murder of Gladys Nelson in her home on University Street on Saturday morning or early afternoon.
Mrozek said Wanland bound Nelson’s hands with a telephone cord and suffocated her. But he declined to answer questions on how Wanland entered the home or on whether he had an accomplice. He said more information will be released after several items of physical evidence are analyzed and other aspects of the investigation are completed.
Nelson’s body was found Sunday by neighbors who entered her home after noticing that newspapers and mail had accumulated in front of the house.
Wanland, 41, who had no permanent address, has a criminal history dating back to 1993, when he was convicted in McHenry County of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, and was fined $1,000 and placed on probation, according to court files.
Charges were pending against him in McHenry County for an alleged residential burglary last March in Cary and for several counts of forgery involving checks, according to court files. A fraud charge was also pending against him in Boone County.
In Harvard, however, Wanland was known more as a painter, not as a troublemaker.
“He was known as `Frank the Painter.’ He drank Cokes whenever he came in here. He never caused any problems,” said the owner of a McHenry tavern who asked not to be identified.
However, Wanland also confided to friends recently that he planned to steal a car from an elderly woman, Mrozek said. That information prompted police to seek him out for questioning.
“We put two officers near (the house where he was staying), but he spotted them and took off on foot,” Mrozek said.
Despite help from a state police helicopter and an Algonquin police canine unit late Thursday and early Friday, Wanland eluded police.
A more concrete piece of evidence emerged on Friday, Mrozek said.
Nelson’s car, a 1995 Ford Taurus, had been found shortly after her death about a mile from her house, but the license plates had been changed to stolen Wisconsin plates.
“On Friday, the state crime lab identified a fingerprint on the plate as Wanland’s,” Mrozek said.
“At that point we knew who we were looking for. The fingerprint was a pretty strong indication that he’s the one we wanted to talk to.”
But Wanland deprived police of the chance to do that.
Mrozek said investigators from the McHenry County sheriff’s department and the Illinois State Police assisted Harvard police in the investigation.
