Kevin Fox and his then-wife Melissa Photo credit ABC
Riley, an adorable, outgoing and bright-eyed toddler, was found murdered in a creek just 4 miles from her home, shaking the small town of Wilmington, Illinois, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, to its core.
The Will County State’s Attorney filed first-degree murder charges against Kevin Fox and announced they were planning to seek the death penalty against him for the murder of his daughter.
Kevin spent eight months in jail wrongfully accused of his daughter’s murder.
Upon Kevin’s arrest, Zellner filed a civil rights lawsuit against Will County, the Will County Sheriff’s Office, multiple sheriff’s detectives who investigated the case, the former Will County State’s Attorney, the polygraph examiner and the forensic interviewer who spoke with Tyler, and others.
Two of the detectives were found liable for malicious prosecution. The jury awarded the family $15.5 million which was later reduced to about $8 million on appeal.
In 2009, the FBI took over the case after Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow said it had reached the point where something “drastic” had to happen. Its investigation led them to Scott Eby, a career criminal who eventually confessed to the crime. In his confession, he revealed, among other things, the harrowing details of Riley’s final moments.
Eby was sentenced to life in prison without parole. For Melissa, justice was bittersweet.
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Article URL : https://abcnews.go.com/US/mom-opens-botched-police-investigation-daughters-murder/story?id=77538319