Murderer on parole stuck in Dixon prison

DIXON – A paroled man who spent decades in prison for murdering five people near Yorkville remains in the Dixon Correctional Center, waiting to find a viable housing location after he was booted from two previous spots.

Carl Reimann, 77, was granted parole in late April but has been back in the Dixon prison, where he had been serving his original sentence, since mid-May.

Reimann is being “treated like any other offender in IDOC custody,” Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lindsey Hess said.

Reimann was imprisoned in June 1973 for slaying five people – including a 16-year-old girl – at the Pine Village Steak House near Yorkville.

On Dec. 29, 1972, he and his girlfriend, Betty Piche, went into the Pine Village restaurant intending to rob it. Police reports showed he pulled a .32 caliber semiautomatic handgun on the other patrons and Piche took about $640.

He shot customers David Gardner and Bob Loftus, bartender John Wilson, 16-year-old Catherine Rekate and cook George Pashade.

After Reimann was granted parole, he first lived at the La Grange home of a couple who befriended him during the decades he spent in prison.

Other La Grange residents and officials complained he was too close to Seventh Avenue School, though, and the state moved him into a structured living facility in Calumet City in early May.

Similar complaints arose after it was learned that facility was a block away from Woodrow Wilson Elementary School.

He moved back to Dixon on May 16.

Other cases

Reimann isn’t the only inmate to be held beyond a release date because he or she can’t find a place to live. About 1,400 people who have been paroled remain in IDOC facilities because they have been unable to secure appropriate housing, Hess said.

For Illinois taxpayers, the extended stays can add as much as $36 million a year to prison costs.

Victims’ family members have started a Facebook group called “IL Prisoner Review Board Watchdog,” focusing on reforming the Prisoner Review Board and its process of parole.

Michelle Gardner-Morkert, daughter of David Gardner, who was 35 when Reimann shot him, said she sent numerous requests for written documentation of Reimann’s conditions of parole and received them in late September.

Reimann must register on the Illinois State Police Murder and Violent Offender Against Youth Registry and with the chief of police of the town in which he resides. Unlike sex offenders, people on this list are not barred from living near a school.

Gardner-Morkert is concerned she doesn't know where Reimann eventually
will be placed or when he'll be released, and she checks online frequently for information through IDOC's offender search website and murder registry.

“I never had to think twice of him during the 45 years he was in prison,” Gardner-Morkert said. “My job was to heal with my family and community. Now, it creates a sense of fear and revictimization ... all of a sudden, they are out and you don’t know where they are. So even as a peace of mind for the victims, it’s important to know.”

Reimann isn’t allowed to live in Kendall County, Gardner-Morkert said, but she no longer lives in the county and he was relocated for a while to an area near where she lives and works.

Restorative justice

There are a lot of people who want restorative justice, but the system, unfortunately, isn’t set up for that, she said.

“They are doing a lot of injustice to myself and the family that housed Carl and the church that was supporting him, and now he’s back in prison,” Gardner-Morkert said. “It didn’t work out for anyone, not even the person they wanted to help the most – the offender.”

If a home isn’t found, parolees remain in custody until his or her discharge date, which in Reimann’s case is projected to be Sept. 14, 2039, according to IDOC’s website.

Reimann is divorced, has three children with whom he has no contact and has a sister in Mississippi, with whom he has periodic contact with via mail, according to documents from his parole hearing.

At his hearing in April, parole board member Tom Johnson said that Reimann had a solid parole plan and that a member of the Hinsdale Covenant Church would work closely with him in his adjustment to society.

Hess said the department is required to supervise all parolees and as a result, every parolee must have an approved housing placement plan.

“The department works diligently to place all parolees who have not been able to secure appropriate housing on their own,” she said.

Reimann could transfer to a home outside of Illinois if a viable host site is identified.