The lone suspect in the Mother’s Day slaying of an 83-year-old Marengo woman left his shoeprints and a bicycle in her garage before he was shot to death by a Marengo police officer, authorities said.
Jose Manuel Aldava-Grijaldo, 21, of Marengo, acted alone when he strangled Verna Corcoran with a towel in her home, said McHenry County State’s Atty. Louis Bianchi and other officials at a news conference Thursday.
“We expect this will cause any fears and anxieties about the involvement of any other person to be put to rest,” Bianchi said.
The news conference at Bianchi’s office in Woodstock was to discuss evidence against Aldava-Grijaldo and reassure neighbors.
“If we felt at all that there was another suspect, we would still be looking,” said Marengo Police Chief Les Kottke.
A neighbor discovered Corcoran’s body around 6:15 p.m. May 14 in the doorway of her home in the 700 block of Cherokee Trail in the Indian Trails subdivision.
About 11 p.m., a Marengo police officer saw Aldava-Grijaldo in Corcoran’s 1988 Ford Crown Victoria about four blocks from her home, police said. After a chase into Kane County, the car crashed near Hampshire, and Aldava-Grijaldo was shot to death when he confronted the officer, police said.
Evidence gathered by investigators includes videotapes from gas stations and stores in Rockford and Belvidere, and shoeprints found in a powdery substance on Corcoran’s garage floor, which matched high-topped walking shoes that Aldava-Grijaldo had been wearing, police said.
Marengo Police Sgt. Rich Solarz said the videotapes helped give investigators an apparent timeline for Aldava-Grijaldo’s movements after Corcoran was slain.
She is believed to have been killed around 9 a.m. Aldava-Grijaldo was identified by a clerk who said he bought a battery charger around 10 a.m. at a Marengo auto parts store. Police believe he needed the charger to start Corcoran’s car in her garage. She had become frail and no longer drove her car, though she had renewed her driver’s license two years ago, friends said.
A bicycle traced to Aldava-Grijaldo was found in Corcoran’s garage, along with the battery charger and its box.
Investigators said there were at least six videotapes of Aldava-Grijaldo entering stores in Marengo, Belvidere and Rockford after the slaying. On at least two of the tapes, he is seen alone with Corcoran’s Crown Victoria, said Crystal Lake Police Cmdr. Michael Brichetto, a member of McHenry County’s Major Investigation Assistance Team.
Chicago lawyer Robert Romero, who represents Aldava-Grijaldo’s family, declined to comment on the specific evidence, but said his investigation will continue at least until the July coroner inquests in McHenry and Kane Counties on Corcoran’s and Aldava-Grijaldo’s deaths.
“We’re still following several active leads, and we have not drawn any conclusions one way or the other,” Romero said. He said family members have told him that Aldava-Grijaldo, a Mexican national who arrived in the U.S. about six months ago, was not involved in the slaying.
Estelle Jamieson, a neighbor and friend of Corcoran’s who discovered her body, said after the news conference that she was pleased that officials had released more details.
“They were kind of quiet about it, and I felt we were not getting any answers,” Jamieson said.
Kottke said family members have been kept up to date on the investigation during weekly conversations.
“I’ve been speaking with the neighbors on occasion, letting them know why we couldn’t tell them more,” he said. “We told them that if we felt there was another suspect, we would be getting that information out.”
An investigation into whether the shooting death of Aldava-Grijaldo was justified is not expected to be completed until after the Kane County inquest, said Illinois State Police Master Sgt. Joseph Perez. Kottke said the officer involved has returned to normal duties.
