The man Algonquin police suspect stole a squad car with police dog Thor caged in the back seat has refused to talk to investigators.
But police are hoping evidence left in the car will link the 31-year-old Cary man to the crime.
Evidence found in the squad car has been sent to the Illinois State Police crime lab in Joliet to determine whether the suspect took the car and Thor from a police parking lot last Thursday.
The car was abandoned in Crystal Lake early Friday morning, and Thor was found in the back seat unharmed. Although police interviewed the Cary man Friday morning after finding him in a friend’s home in Crystal Lake, he was released and no charges have been filed.
“The most I can say right now is that they are examining anything that may have been found, not just fingerprints, hoping they can make a link,” said Terence Nader, chief of the criminal division of McHenry County state’s attorney’s office.
The stolen squad car was a slight embarrassment for the Algonquin Police Department, officials said. But the case became even more complicated after police learned that their prime suspect is the man who Kane County authorities have publicly linked to a slaying and dismemberment a year ago.
The suspect failed to appear for a court hearing Friday in Kane County Circuit Court on obstruction of justice charges stemming from the 1997 death of Michael Nobayashi. Nobayashi’s dismembered body was found April 8 in a shallow grave in unincorporated Kane County near Burlington.
In court documents and testimony, Kane County authorities have said they have evidence indicating that the man was involved in Nobayashi’s death. But the suspect has been charged only with obstruction of justice in that case.
The court hearing in Kane County was rescheduled for April 9. The man’s lawyer, Richard Salon, attended Friday’s hearing and explained that his client wasn’t present because he had been arrested for drunken driving.
“I don’t think he took the (police) car because he was drunk,” said Algonquin Police Chief Russell Laine. “I think he made a conscious decision to do this, and he fully knew what he was doing.”
Police said they arrested the suspect Thursday evening on a charge of drunken driving after they stopped his 1993 Pontiac Firebird on Randall Road in Algonquin. Police said the car had been traveling at a high rate of speed.
After police released him on bond, he waited in the police department’s lobby for a taxi.
About midnight, Patrol Officer Joseph Knaak, Thor’s partner, pulled his squad car into the police station parking lot and went inside to file some documents. Knaak left the parked car unlocked and running, with the dog inside.
But when he returned, the car and Thor were gone. Police said they suspect the man drove away in the police cruiser. Police said that no weapons were in the car when it was stolen and that nothing was missing when the vehicle was recovered in Crystal Lake shortly after 6 a.m. Friday.
Because the man had been released on bond for the Kane County case, authorities there are interested in what happens in the McHenry County case. If he is charged with taking the car, his bond in Kane County may be revoked, Kane County authorities said.
In considering what charges may be filed in the McHenry County case, authorities said Thor being a police dog bears some weight. In Illinois, teasing, striking, interfering or meddling with police dogs is a misdemeanor. Injuring or killing a police dog is a felony.
Laine said Thor is trained to act on command. Even if the German shepherd had not been caged in the back seat, Thor probably would not have attacked the suspect who stole the squad car unless he was provoked.
“I’m sure he let the guy know he was there,” said Laine. “He would not attack but he would bark, and I’m sure he was doing that.
“These dogs are taught to be aggressive, but only in certain conditions or on direction,” Laine continued. “They don’t have an overall aggressive personality. You don’t want a dog just lunging at anyone. They have to be focused, whether by command or threat.”
