Couple charged in Woodstock abduction fled with child as DCFS planned to take custody, authorities allege

The Lake in the Hills parents of a 5-year-old girl who was the focus of an endangered missing person alert Tuesday night were both granted pretrial release Wednesday.

Jeffrey S. Cook, 57, and Jessica L. Walsh, 29, are both charged with child abduction, while Cook also is charged with obstructing justice, court records show. All charges are Class 4 felonies.

The child has been located and “she is safe,” Woodstock Deputy Chief of Police Ray Lanz said Wednesday morning in an email.

During Wednesday’s detention hearing, attorneys said the child had been placed in custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. A shelter care hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

Though prosecutors argued for pretrial detention, Cook and Walsh, who is pregnant, were granted release with conditions including they have no contact with the child and be monitored by court services.

However, because Walsh also has a pending aggravated battery case stemming from allegations that she punched a teenager in a park, McHenry County Judge Michael Chmiel ordered that Walsh be held until Thursday. Prosecutors are set to argue a petition to revoke her release in the battery case.

Assistant State’s Attorney Anthony Marin said that on May 23, case workers from DCFS went to Cook’s and Walsh’s home in response to a report of abuse and neglect. According to the criminal complaint filed in McHenry County court, an “investigation was underway” and DCFS “intended to take protective custody” of the child.

However, the couple did not let caseworkers see the child or take her into custody, authorities said. The following day, DCFS alerted the couple that the child welfare agency had a warrant for the child, but the couple left town with the girl and drove to Southern Illinois, Marin said.

On Tuesday, the couple took the child to the DCFS office in Woodstock where case workers wanted to interview her without her parents present. The couple “became uncooperative” and would not allow that and fled, Marin said.

This prompted the statewide alert for the child.

When police responded to the DCFS office at about 4 p.m. Tuesday to a report the child had been abducted from there, they learned that “custody of the abducted child was recently appointed to the DCFS by the courts,” according to a news release from the Woodstock Police Department. Police said the couple “took the child upon learning about the custody and fled Woodstock in a vehicle.“

Woodstock detectives were able to contact Cook, who “was uncooperative in returning the child. As Cook and Walsh were suspected to have fled back to Lake in the Hills with the child, the Lake in the Hills Police Department was contacted and assisted in locating the vehicle in the area of their residence,” according to the release. “Upon conferring with the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office, felony charges were approved against Cook and Walsh and an arrest warrant was issued for Cook. A search warrant was obtained for the residence and Cook and Walsh were located hiding in the residence with the [child]. Cook and Walsh were taken into custody,” according to the release.

The child was evaluated by paramedics and taken as a precautionary measure to the hospital, where custody and safeguarding of the juvenile was turned over to DCFS, police said.

In arguing that Cook and Walsh would pose a danger to the child should they be released, Marin said that “for multiple days in May they concealed her whereabouts to prevent her from being taken by DCFS.”

Marin also said they both are a “real and present danger” to the child and based on her “past reckless behavior” Walsh was “not acting in the best interest of the child.”

In arguing they be released, Assistant Public Defender David Giesinger said the state has not “met the burden of proving” this was an abduction. He said the girl is the biological daughter of Walsh and Cook. Giesinger also said the day they drove to Southern Illinois was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and it was a planned trip. He noted Walsh’s pregnancy said both she and Cook scored low on a risk assessment evaluation.

Regarding Tuesday’s conversation in the DCFS office, Giesinger said, Cook was outside waiting and was not part of the discussion of whether to allow caseworkers to interview the child. Giesinger also said Cook has ties to the community and owns a construction business and properties in the area.

But Marin said Cook “hid” the child when DCFS went to the couple’s home and “didn’t allow her to be checked on.” Additionally, like Walsh, Cook “is not acting in the best interest of the child,” Marin said. Cook also has a criminal history, ”numerous police contacts” from the 1980s and 1990s including offenses of burglary, assault and battery, Marin said.

Though the pair were granted pretrial release from the county jail, Chmiel said, “This is all very concerning,” adding DCFS should not have to obtain a warrant to remove a child from suspected abuse and neglect. “DCFS has the authority to take a child ... they are empowered to, they are obligated to.” But in this case DCFS had to obtain a warrant.

“Wow, wow,” Chmiel said.