Hurst’s DNA on pillow, knives in Wilsons' Sycamore laundry room crawl space, forensic expert says

SYCAMORE – Although authorities can’t say for sure what someone used to violently beat to death Patricia Wilson , 85, and her son Robert Wilson, 64, at their rural Sycamore home on a Sunday in August 2016, a forensic pathologist testified Wednesday that she believes it was a “hammer-like” object.

Dr. Mitra Kalelkar, who performed autopsies on the Wilsons on Aug. 16, 2016, testified on the fifth day in the double murder trial of Jonathan D. Hurst, who is charged in the Wilson killings. After she was done, prosecutors rested their case.

Hurst’s defense team is expected to take up arguments at 9 a.m. Thursday. Closing statements could come soon after. Then, the jury will begin deliberations.

“They died from cranial cerebral injuries brought on by blunt-force trauma,” Kalelkar said of the Wilsons, identifying graphic injuries displayed in photographs to the jury Wednesday.

[ Fingerprints of man accused in 2016 Wilson killings found in their Sycamore home, expert says ]

Hurst, 55, formerly of Chicago, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of home invasion. If convicted, he faces a life sentence. Held in jail without release since his arrest almost five years ago, Hurst has pleaded not guilty.

It’s not yet known if he will testify in his defense. Members of his family are expected to take the stand, court records show. The defense is expected to call to the stand Hurst’s sister, Laura Hurst of Texas, and his brother, Craig Hurst of Indiana, on Thursday.

As photos of Patricia’s fractured skull and Robert’s numerous stab wounds were shown on screens, Hurst looked on, appearing at times to take notes. Members of the Wilson family who’ve attended every day of the trial since it began Jan. 23 were not in the courtroom when the photos were shown.

Patricia died before Robert, Kalelkar said her findings showed. That put their time of death sometime the night of Aug. 14, 2016, she said. Authorities had estimated that the Wilsons were killed sometime between 7:45 p.m. Aug. 14 and 12:33 a.m. Aug. 15.

Patricia spoke to her sister Nancy Strever, by phone at about 7:43 p.m. that night. Patricia planned to go downstairs sometime that evening to do laundry, a chore she did daily, Strever said in testimony. Robert, who’d spent the afternoon at the Sycamore Moose Lodge, had a dentist appointment the next morning. He never showed.

At about 12:33 a.m. Aug. 15, traffic camera surveillance picked up Patricia’s white Chevrolet Impala headed down Route 64. A Chicago CTA bus camera showed the car later that morning, about 10:58 a.m., parked outside the Lincoln Park Zoo. Family members found the slain Wilsons that evening, setting off a yearslong police investigation that authorities said led them to Hurst.

Both Wilsons suffered significant head injuries that fractured their skulls, Kalelkar said.

Patricia also had bruising on her arms and a cut behind her left ear and on her hand. Robert suffered “massive internal bleeding” after he was stabbed in the chest, Kalelkar said. His right lung was punctured. He also was stabbed in the neck, stomach and on the left side of his chest. His left eye collapsed, Kalelkar said.

Defense attorney Emma Franklin asked whether the Wilsons' injuries hinted at the type of weapon that may have been used.

The killer’s weapon would have had to be somewhat curved, Kalelkar said, maybe “something with a round surface.”

“It would be consistent with a hammer-like weapon,” Kalelkar said. Or a “cylindrical rod,” she theorized in testimony.

Traces of Hurst’s DNA found in Wilson home

Traces of Hurst’s DNA were found on multiple items in the Wilson home, Illinois State Police forensic expert Laurie Lee said in testimony Wednesday, presenting evidence that authorities have long said was key to the investigation.

Hurst’s fingerprints also matched fingerprints lifted from items in the home, Illinois State Police forensic expert Edward Rottman said Tuesday.

Lee said forensic experts used those items – a Diet Coke can, a pillow found in the basement crawl space, a bloodied towel and swabs from Patricia’s car – to develop the suspect’s DNA profile.

For years, that profile went unidentified.

Authorities have said a breakthrough in early 2020 before Hurst’s arrest led them to him.

By February 2020, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office contracted with Virginia-based Parabon Labs to help in the investigation: Whose DNA was on those crime scene items? Whose fingerprints were on knives found in a basement crawl space? They’d ruled out the Wilsons, according to testimony this week.

On Wednesday, Lee said experts believe some of that DNA was Hurst’s.

Since the trial began, prosecutors often have focused witness testimony on a crawl space found in the Wilsons' basement laundry room. On the concrete floor in the space lay a black and red checkered blanket and white pillow. Unopened Diet Coke cans lay nearby. Next to those were two knives and an empty knife sheath. And Patricia Wilson’s body was strewn on the floor, half in the crawl space, photographs showed.

Traces of Hurst’s DNA were found on that white pillow and the handles of the two knives next to it, Lee said in testimony. His DNA also was traced to samples found on a Diet Coke can on the upstairs kitchen counter, she said. And smaller traces of Hurst’s DNA were identified on the handle of a bayonet-style knife that police spotted under items piled on a basement bed, Lee said.

“Cans and bottles, they’re good sources of getting DNA from the person who drank it,” Lee said.

How did authorities know it was Hurst’s DNA on those items?

After his Feb. 24, 2020, arrest, a judge ordered him to provide a cheek swab so that investigators could use a complete DNA profile to compare with the crime scene.

But authorities previously told Shaw Local News Network that they believed they had Hurst’s DNA before that.

A breakthrough came in February 2020 after a lengthy genetic DNA investigation, according to the sheriff’s office. Researchers at Parabon built a DNA profile of the suspect using evidence collected at the crime scene.

Matching genetic markers with a public DNA database – where genealogy enthusiasts might voluntarily upload their own samples in search of long-lost relatives – investigators believed they’d found something.

Researchers used those genetic markers to develop a family tree backward, pulling comparisons from the DNA database, CeCe Moore, Parabon’s chief genetic genealogist, told Shaw Local in February 2020 after Hurst’s arrest. They went through about 20 of Hurst’s relatives, Moore said, before settling on him.

Hurst had no criminal record that would have made his DNA or fingerprints known to investigators, authorities have said.

Authorities soon found other things that appeared to connect Hurst to the Wilson killings. Patricia’s missing car was found near Hurst’s Chicago apartment, police testified. Hurst’s cellphone was in the area at the time.

And on Feb. 18, 2020, days before his arrest, a Cincinnati police detective pulled trash from a garbage can outside Hurst’s Ohio home. DNA collected from discarded beverage containers “was the unknown DNA” found in the Wilson house, DeKalb County sheriff’s detective John Holiday said.

On Wednesday, the defense argued that prosecutors hadn’t fully proven that it was Hurst who killed the Wilsons.

“There has been no evidence connecting Mr. Hurst to the actual murder of the individuals Robert and Patricia Wilson,” lead defense lawyer Chip Criswell said. “At most ... what they have proved is that Mr. Hurst was in the area at the time of the murders.”

But testimony offered by police and forensic experts over the past five days was clear, lead prosecutor Scott Schwertley argued.

“The state has proven that Jonathan Hurst was the only other person, the evidence shows that he was the only other person other than the two deceased, Patricia and Robert Wilson, in their residence through fingerprints and DNA,” Schwertley said Wednesday.