A 36-year-old Tinley Park man was sentenced last week to 33 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder charges stemming from the tabbing death of an Oak Forest woman in August 2023.
Chad Oster, 36, of the 18200 block of Glen Swilly Circle, was taken into custody in 2023 after police and SWAT forces worked to serve a search warrant at his home, leading to a multiple hour standoff.
His arrest came after Oak Forest police said they responded to a domestic disturbance when they found 30-year-old Lauren Pikor in the road near her home in the 5300 block of Diamond Drive, a short distance from Oak Forest High School.
Oster’s attorney, Patrick Campanelli, said his client’s remorse was one of the reasons he agreed to the plea deal with Cook County prosecutors. Campanelli also said Oster did not want to put the families, both his and the victim’s, through the trauma and emotional ordeal of a trial.
Oster served 1,042 days in prison while awaiting his trial, which will partially count toward his sentence.
Pikor suffered cuts and stab wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 11 p.m. Aug. 4, 2023, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Pikor had secured an order of protection against Oster in March 2021, but that order was dismissed after Oster pleaded guilty to the charge of domestic battery in 2023. He was sentenced to two years’ probation, according to court papers.
Court records also show Pikor was the mother of an 8-year-old girl, and that the child’s biological father filed a petition in circuit court in August 2021 alleging that Oster “has a history of violence and abuse” of Pikor. It cited the March 7, 2021, argument in which Pikor was punched in the throat and alleged that some of the abuse occurred in the girl’s presence.
awright@chicagotribune.com
