Kristina Wesselman was popular with all of her fellow students. She was an athlete and the president of her freshman high school class in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Sunday, July 21, 1985, Kristina had plans to watch old movies with her mother. She ran out to buy some candy bars. Her mother, Susan recalls the last words she ever said to her daughter.
“Be careful princess, I love you.”
Early on the morning of July 22, 1985, Kristina’s body was found just off a path close to a grocery store near her house. Kristina had been raped and stabbed. Pearl earrings were stolen from Kristina’s body. Susan vowed she would never stop trying to find the person that did this to her daughter. In 2011, Susan made a plea to the public asking for new evidence in the case via the Daily Herald .
It would take another four years before Susan would be able to see her daughter’s killer brought to justice. On September 10, DuPage County investigators working on the case received “new information” according to NBC News . The information led them to Michael R. Jones home. Jones, 62-years-old, lives 150-miles south of where the crime took place.
A DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba spoke to the press. Patch reported Sheriff Zaruba’s comments.
“Since the date of the tragic murder, the case has remained open and active. Over the last 30 years the Sheriff’s Cold Case Unit has worked hundreds of leads that have sent them across the nation and thousands of man hours have been spent to catch the killer in this horrendous crime.”
“The work of the members of my detective division, coupled with the assistance of the Champaign Police Department and the Champaign County Probation Department during the capture of Michael R. Jones has made it possible for us to bring this 1985 shocking case to a successful conclusion.”
“I cannot say enough about the professionalism and dedication of the investigators over the past 30 years who have worked this case and their work will now bring closure for the Wesselman family and the residents of Unincorporated Milton Township with the arrest and prosecution of the suspect.”
Susan Wesselman now lives in Colorado. She has yet to comment on the case. Michael Jones’ arrest will never bring Kristina Wesselman back. It will never erase the hurt and agony that he placed on this family, but maybe, Susan and the rest of the family can now have closure since justice has finally been served.
[Photo by NBC News]
