SHORT READ
49 Year Old Murder Finally Solved
Julie Ann Hanson was just 15 years old when she was killed while riding her brother’s bike.
The 1970s were a simpler time. Then, doors were left unlocked, people knew their neighbours, and latch-key kids were typical. Julie and her siblings were no different.
The teenager was desperate to attend the local baseball game in Naperville, so she borrowed her brother’s bicycle and left for the pitch. Julie never returned home from the sports game and was reported missing by her parents soon after.
Her body was found in a cornfield near Modaff Road and 87th Street, and the autopsy showed she’d been sexually assaulted and stabbed over 30 times.
Her death shocked the community, “She was very personable, a very sweet girl,” said Hanson’s neighbour, Peggy Thompson. “She was only a couple of years older than us, but she babysat some of the kids in the neighbourhood.”
Despite a fresh crime scene, Julie’s murderer was never identified, but police kept working on her case, even decades after her death.
“This was never a cold case for our police department,” said Naperville Police Chief Robert Marshall in thepress conference. “We were all conscious of Julie’s murder looking…