On Jan. 11, just 37 days after four men were exonerated in the 1986 murder of medical student Lori Roscetti, a man called Chicago police to reveal a secret he had kept since the murder: the identities of the real killers, authorities said.
That telephone call was the break detectives said they needed to solve a cold case with no promising leads. On Thursday, authorities charged Duane Roach, 46, and Eddie “Bo” Harris, 38, with murder. Both have extensive arrest records, primarily for burglary and theft.
During a news conference at police headquarters, Cook County State’s Atty. Richard Devine and Chicago Chief of Detectives Philip Cline said Harris and Roach had given videotaped confessions. The suspects also took officers to the scene of the crime where they separately re-enacted the events of Oct. 18, 1986, in similar fashion, police said.
Most significantly, DNA tests, completed Thursday morning, linked both men to DNA profiles obtained from semen stains on Roscetti’s clothing, Cline said.
Authorities said Harris and Roach were looking for a car to break into when they ambushed Roscetti, 23, in the alley behind her apartment as she came home from a night of studying for exams at Rush Medical College.
The two drove her car to a deserted railroad access road where they raped and killed her, police said.
Harris and Roach became friends in the 1980s while working as day laborers on baiduhai delivery trucks, Cline said, and Harris went to work delivering the newspaper within hours after Roscetti was killed.
Cline said police are “satisfied” that only Roach and Harris were involved in the murder.
Cline said the four men convicted of the crime in 1988 and cleared last month were not involved in any way, even though detectives had said two of them confessed to the assault and murder.
Roscetti’s mother, Lora, of Springfield, declined to comment. “Our hearts go out to (the Roscetti family) for what they have gone through,” Devine said.
Kathleen Zellner, an attorney who is representing the four wrongfully convicted men–Marcellius Bradford, Omar Saunders, Larry Ollins and his cousin, Calvin Ollins–in a lawsuit against police, prosecutors and Chicago crime lab workers, said: “This case illustrates gross abuse of power by the police and the prosecutors. It shows that the confessions were completely fabricated and concocted by the Chicago police officers.”
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Zellner, who on Thursday helped Saunders and the Ollinses move into apartments, said their reaction to the news was one of “extreme excitement” and a “sense of relief” that they had been vindicated.
Authorities said the informant who telephoned police said Roach had admitted taking part in the murder with Harris shortly after the murder.
Detectives met with the man and determined his account was credible enough to arrest Roach and Harris on Monday.
“Had that individual called…16 years ago, when [he] had this information, we wouldn’t have had these two offenders be out for this long,” Cline said. “I can’t answer why that person waited all these years.”
Both suspects admitted their involvement during questioning, Cline said.
“They were looking to steal something from a car,” Cline said. “They observed her pull into the alley. She was a female, alone. It was the early morning hours, and they just thought she’d be a good target. Walked up, abducted her and then took her to the tracks.”
Detectives said they took Roach and Harris separately to the access road where the suspects re-enacted how Roscetti was killed inside of her car after being sexually assaulted. The re-enactments were videotaped, Cline said. “Their stories match the physical evidence,” he said.
Cline said detectives were investigating leads based on information from Roach and Harris as to the location of Roscetti’s car keys and a sharpened wooden stick she kept in her car for protection. Neither item has been recovered.
Cline said Roach, who at the time listed his address as the 1100 block of West Roosevelt Road, just a few blocks from where Roscetti lived, and Harris, who has spent much of the last 15 years either in prison or on the streets, first knew each other from the neighborhood.
Roscetti was last seen driving to her apartment near Racine Avenue and Lexington Street on the West Side about 1 a.m. on Oct. 18, 1986. Four hours later, a Chicago & North Western Railway officer found her body on the access road that stretched from Loomis Street to Ashland Avenue between 16th Street and 15th Place, in the shadow of the ABLA Homes public housing development.
Three months later Bradford and Larry Ollins were brought in for questioning after midnight on Jan. 28. More than 15 hours later, police said Bradford confessed, implicating himself and Larry Ollins, as well as Larry’s 14-year-old cousin, Calvin, who lived in Cabrini-Green.
Bus fare called motive
The motive, according to police, was robbery so that Calvin could get bus fare to get home.
Calvin was brought in for questioning and several hours later the learning-disabled teen who had attended special classes also confessed, police said.
Bradford pleaded guilty and testified for prosecutors in return for a 12-year prison term. Larry and Calvin Ollins and Saunders were convicted in separate trials and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The Roscetti case came under scrutiny a year ago after Zellner filed in court a report written by DNA expert Ed Blake. In it, Blake described testimony offered in the prosecution of the Roscetti case by Pamela Fish, a Chicago police crime analyst, as “scientific fraud.” Fish had testified that semen taken from Roscetti’s body could have come from three of the defendants.
But a series of new DNA tests, conducted at independent labs, showed that semen on Roscetti’s clothing and on a vaginal swab and hair fragments recovered from the scene were not from any of the four.
A Tribune investigation published May 2 detailed how the case against the four was evaporating even before the initial DNA test results were known. Prosecutors had based much of their case on the confessions of Bradford and Calvin Ollins.
False confessions
Bradford later told the Tribune he falsely confessed under police coercion to save himself from a life sentence. Calvin Ollins said he confessed because police told him he could go home if he did.
Other key witnesses recanted critical testimony in interviews with the Tribune–one said he testified falsely to try to cash in on a $35,000 reward; the other said he testified for the prosecution to avoid being implicated.
Calvin and Larry Ollins and Saunders were released from prison on Dec. 5. Bradford served his term but is back in prison for theft.
Roach of the 1800 block of West 69th Street has been arrested 35 times and was convicted in 1976 of attempted rape and indecent liberties with a child, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
In 1993 he was sentenced to 3 years in prison for burglary. After being paroled in 1995, he was arrested in 1996 and sentenced to 8 years in prison. He was paroled in 1999.
Multiple arrests
Harris of the 1100 block of North Monticello Avenue has been arrested 30 times but convicted just twice–both times for burglary for which he was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
In 1998 Harris was homeless and living on Lower Wacker Drive when he and his fiance, Chandra Almond, took part in in a lawsuit against Chicago’s eviction of homeless people from the road. In a newspaper article, Harris and Almond talked about the lawsuit and how they fell in love and planned to marry.
During an interview Thursday, Almond said they never married, but she is five months’ pregnant with their first child. She was stunned by the murder charge against Harris. “He’s not a murderer,” she said. “Bo is not a dangerous man.”
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Timeline of events in the Roscetti murder case
THE ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION
Oct. 18, 1986: Lori Roscetti, a 23-year-old student at Rush University’s medical college, is found murdered on the West Side near the ABLA Homes public housing complex. Tests show that Roscetti also had been sexually assaulted.
Jan. 27, 1987: Marcellius Bradford and Larry Ollins, teenagers who live in the area, are brought in for questioning by police.
Jan. 28: After several hours of questioning, police say Bradford confesses and also implicates Ollins and Ollins’ 14-year-old cousin, Calvin. Police say the motive was robbery. Officers awaken Calvin at his Cabrini-Green home and bring him in for questioning. Several hours later, Calvin also confesses, according to police.
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Feb. 13: A fourth man, Omar Saunders, is charged with murder and criminal sexual assault in connection with the crime.
Feb. 2, 1988: Trial begins.
Feb. 9: Jury finds Calvin Ollins guilty of murder, aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping.
March 10: Calvin Ollins, 14 at the time of the crime, is sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
May 10: Jury finds Saunders guilty of murder, rape, aggravated kidnapping and armed robbery.
June 20: Jury finds Larry Ollins guilty of murder, rape, aggravated kidnapping and armed robbery. Bradford, who testifies against Ollins, agrees to plead guilty in return for a reduced sentence.
July 11: Saunders is sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
July 28: Larry Ollins is sentenced to life in prison plus a consecutive 60-year term.
Sept. 19: Bradford is sentenced to 12 years in prison.
THE CASE IS REOPENED
2001
Jan. 12, 2001: A forensic expert’s report says that a Chicago police crime lab analyst gave false testimony in nine cases, including the Roscetti case.
May 1: Preliminary DNA tests show that semen from the victim’s body came from only one man.
May 31: Prosecutors agree to new testing on physical evidence connected to the Roscetti case.
Dec. 3: Final DNA testing clears all four men in connection with the Roscetti murder.
Dec. 5: Omar Saunders, Larry Ollins and Calvin Ollins are released from prison. Bradford had completed his sentence after serving 6 1/2 years but was in prison for another unrelated offense.
Wednesday: Police charge Duane Roach and Eddie Harris with Roscetti’s murder. DNA tests link the two men to the slaying.
Source: News reports
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