A great deal has changed in my life over the past 25-years, but I will never forget that hot, sunny July afternoon. I was an 11 year-old boy then, out with my brother hanging fliers on neighborhood doors for a local business. We were a couple of kids trying to earn some spending money for an upcoming vacation. My eldest sister, drove us from one neighborhood to the next. My brother and I would then walk the neighborhoods hanging the fliers. Once we finished our work for the day, my sister started to drive us home.
As we approached the intersection of IL Rt.53 and Butterfield Roads, we noticed bright yellow police-tape and many police cars. There was a small crowd of people that had formed too. Out of curiosity we stopped to find out what was going on. We pulled into a parking lot adjacent to the grassy-field that had been taped-off. We were curious to know what was going on. My brother saw a classmate of his in the crowd and asked him. He said someone was killed in the field. He knew nothing more. It isn’t much of a memory, but it is one that is vivid and will never leave me.
In a matter of hours, we would come to find that the person killed in that field was a vibrant 15 year-old girl named Kristina Wesselman. This news hit way to close to home. The Wesselmans had been neighbors of ours at one point and Kristina went to school with my older brother. The shock of something like this happening in a safe, relatively crime-free place like Glen Ellyn was nothing compared to the shock of who this had happened to.
Periodically, over the last 25-years, that memory would pop into my mind. I have always wished that Kristina’s killer would be found, and I still have that faith to this day. There have been times when it seemed like the police had good leads, but nothing has ever led to an arrest. To the best of my knowledge, there aren’t any known suspects at this time either. Kristina’s murder is now classified as a ‘cold-case’.
You haven’t been forgotten Kristina. I still believe that justice and peace can be found.
If you have any information that may assist police with this case, I encourage you to contact the DuPage County Sheriff’s office 630-407-2400.
