No name shared at Starved Rock murders hearing, tied to recently tested DNA

Anyone waiting to learn who else might have been present at the Starved Rock murders will have to wait a little longer for the mystery person to be revealed.

Chester Weger, 84, appeared Wednesday in La Salle County Circuit Court in his ongoing effort to overturn his murder conviction. He was sentenced to life in prison – but paroled in 2019 – for the murder of Lillian Oetting, one of three women bludgeoned at the park.

Weger’s lawyers had teased that a new person – or people – had been tied to the crime scene through genealogy.

However, Wednesday’s hearing was anticlimactic. The hearing lasted all of nine minutes, and Weger attorney Celeste Stack made no mention of whose newly discovered DNA was tied to the murder scene.

Asked if there is a name forthcoming, Stack said, “No, there is not.”

What is forthcoming is a motion to dismiss that could end Weger’s bid for exoneration. Special prosecutor Colleen Griffin told Judge Michael C. Jansz that she’d spell out her case in a pleading to be filed by Feb. 9.

Weger’s lawyers will reply the following month, and Jansz set an April 10 hearing date.

As previously reported, Weger attorney Andy Hale disclosed in his podcast that a hair from the glove of murder victim Frances Murphy was partially identified. Hale said the hair came from one of four dead men, all brothers, from a family somewhere in the Starved Rock region.

Hale said in the podcast that he would not yet disclose the brothers’ last name – notably, a recent court filing was placed under seal – but he said the family name was tendered to the special prosecutor along with a request to vacate Weger’s conviction.