An 18-year-old Westchester man agreed Wednesday to accompany authorities to Wisconsin to face charges that he murdered his parents and uncle last weekend in the family’s rural Wisconsin farmhouse.
At a 10-minute hearing in Christian County District Court, a judge twice quizzed a somewhat disoriented Steven Michael “Stevie” Tomporowski about his decision. Both times, the teen said he would go.
The teen also said he was under the influence of LSD. When Judge James G. Adams Jr. asked when he last used the drug, the teen paused and finally concluded it was Saturday or Sunday.
Tomporowski, who may return to Wisconsin as early as Thursday, will face first-degree intentional homicide charges in the deaths of Stephen J. Tomporowski, 52, and Deborah Tomporowski, 48, both of Westchester; and Roger Tomporowski, 56, of Arlington Heights. Wisconsin has no death penalty, so if convicted, he faces a maximum of life in prison.
Shortly after the hearing, Wisconsin investigators briefly questioned Tomporowski and inventoried belongings in his mother’s silver 1999 Dodge Intrepid, which he was driving when he was arrested early Tuesday on Interstate Highway 24 near Cadiz, Ky.
In Wisconsin, Richland County Coroner Ralph Shireman said Wednesday that autopsies showed each victim had been shot three to five times with a .22-caliber gun, probably a bolt-action rifle found in the living room.
While the investigation continued, a clearer portrait of Tomporowski emerged in conversations with friends. They described him as a young man who idolized a Johnny Depp film role so much that he dressed like the character; who dreamed of becoming a stand-up comic even though his one performance bombed; and who blamed his parents for his troubles.
“He was like our mascot,” said Wes Sullivan, emcee at Comedy Comedy, a club at the Wyndham Hotel in Lisle. Tomporowski attended shows there every weekend for “at least the last two years,” Sullivan said. He even performed at one open-mike night about eight months ago.
“He bombed,” Sullivan said. “It just wasn’t funny. It wasn’t because it was brooding or gross.”
The teen signed up to perform another standup routine in November, Sullivan said, but lost his nerve.
“He was a very nice fellow,” Sullivan said. “When we saw his face come up on the TV screen Tuesday, we were quite shocked, stunned.”
Tomporowski never mentioned drugs or asked for liquor at the club, Sullivan said. Instead, he routinely sipped Cokes at the bar and would walk to the lobby to smoke, Sullivan said.
The teen’s distinctive clothing style–a Hawaiian shirt, floppy hat and cigarette holder–was borrowed from Depp’s role of Raoul Duke in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” his favorite movie, according to a posting he allegedly made in an Internet chat room in October.
But even as he talked of his dreams of a career in comedy, troubling signs were surfacing in his relationships.
Childhood friend Frank Mattio, 19, said Tomporowski’s parents sent him to a drug rehabilitation clinic after learning of his LSD use in high school. Later, he received mental-health treatment after he had run away briefly to New York, Mattio said.
They also instituted a curfew, which their son resented, Mattio said. Tomporowski considered this meddling and routinely “blamed everything that went wrong on them,” Mattio said. “He would actually say, `I hate them and want to kill them.’ He was all nonchalant about it.”
Mattio said Tomporowski’s behavior had become increasingly erratic over the last two years–sleeping in his car during the day, wandering around O’Hare International Airport at odd hours, talking more often about his drug use.
“We figured he’d either end up in jail or living in the street,” he added. “That’s why we all started staying away from him. We were a little scared.”
The coroner said the autopsies did not show exactly when the men were shot, but he speculated it was late Saturday night. A criminal complaint noted they had gone out to dinner Saturday and returned to the farmhouse about 7 p.m.
Shireman said that from the location of the bodies, “it appeared they were watching TV” before they died.
Shireman said that when the bodies were found at 11 a.m. Monday, it had been “at least 24 hours” since the men were shot. As for Deborah Tomporowski’s killing, “it was pretty obvious that happened just as she walked in the kitchen,” Shireman said. “I think he was probably waiting for her.”
Deborah Tomporowski drove up to the farmhouse after getting a phone call around noon Sunday from her son, who said his father and uncle were having car trouble, a criminal complaint states.
In the house, investigators found a high-powered rifle and a shotgun, neither of which were used in the shootings, the coroner said. Westchester investigators also found about a dozen rifles and shotguns and three pistols in the Westchester home.
Stephen Tomporowski was shot mostly in the chest and abdomen; his brother in the head. Deborah Tomporowski was struck in the head and chest, Shireman said. The bodies were not tied up or restrained, the coroner said, and there was no evidence of a struggle.
At the family’s Westchester home, candles, notes, rose petals and a picture of Steve and Stevie Tomporowski posing near a 1966 Chevrolet were placed along the front steps and walkway.
“Even with all of this that has happened, I’ve always thought of you as the best mom there is, and I still do,” read an unsigned note to Deborah Tomporowski. “Sometimes things go beyond our control, and there is nothing we can do. I grieve for you–I grieve for Steve–and I grieve for Stevie–for the life that should have been.”
