2nd child’s body pulled from river

A frantic search for two missing children came to a painful end Monday, when search crews on the Des Plaines River retrieved the body of 5-year-old Ashley Gleeson.

A day earlier, two fishermen had discovered the body of her 3-year-old brother, Joshua, floating a few hundred feet upstream. Both children had been shot twice in the head, the Will County coroner said.

“This is really not what we had hoped to find, but it’s best that we have found something,” said Illinois State Police Capt. Dan Roach. “It’s been an exhausting search.”

The children had been missing since Nov. 25, when their father, Patrick Michael Gleeson, failed to return them to their Dwight, Ill., home after a scheduled visit.

Gleeson, 48, has been charged in the fatal shooting of his live-in girlfriend, Dena Lynn Fuglseth, whose body was found the day after Thanksgiving in her home near Holland, Mich.

Investigators say they plan to charge Gleeson with killing his children but have not determined where the charges should be filed.

Ashley Gleeson’s body was found just below the Interstate Highway 55 bridge spanning the Des Plaines River outside Channahon. Roach said investigators believe the bodies may have been dropped from the bridge.

When, where and why the children were killed remain a mystery.

“There were no warning signs,” said Donald McClarey, an attorney who represented the children’s mother, Edna Sue Smith, in a long-running custody battle. “According to my client, the children actually looked forward to their visits [with Gleeson].”

Smith declined to comment Monday, but in previous interviews she had called Gleeson a good father.

Court records show that Smith and Gleeson were never married and that after they became estranged they fought over custody of the children.

The Grundy County Circuit Court judge who decided the case wrote that “neither of the parties is extremely well-suited to be the custodial parent.”

Visitation awarded

An evaluator assigned to the case recommended Gleeson get custody of Ashley and Joshua, in part because Gleeson had two teenage daughters and a grown son from a previous relationship and he had a detailed plan for raising the children, McClarey said.

But the evaluator also called Gleeson “overbearing, intrusive and controlling.” Court records show he once sifted through garbage for evidence of meals and had taped phone calls.

The judge awarded the children to Smith and gave Gleeson visitation of both children every other weekend, on alternate holidays and for extended periods in the summer.

Investigators say Gleeson met Fuglseth about a year ago and moved to her hometown near Holland to be closer to her. Fuglseth’s sister, Diana Glatz, said Gleeson had his own place nearby until he moved into Fuglseth’s home about a month ago.

Because the courts had stripped Gleeson of his driver’s license following two convictions for drunken driving, Fuglseth sometimes drove when Gleeson went to pick up his children for visits. McClarey said that over the last few months those visits became less frequent because Gleeson lived far away, was unemployed and had little money.

He said Gleeson had stopped paying his court-ordered $73 a week in child support and owed Smith about $1,500.

When he picked up the children from Smith’s Dwight home Nov. 22, Gleeson was supposed to return them after the weekend. Investigators say Gleeson called Smith Nov. 25 and asked for a few more hours with them, but Smith refused, worrying that Ashley would be late for school.

Gleeson did not return with the children, sparking a nationwide search. The search became a manhunt the day after Thanksgiving, when police in Michigan searched Fuglseth’s home and found her body under a trap door leading to a cellar.

Investigators say Gleeson spent the night of Nov. 28 in a Super 8 hotel in south suburban Lansing, where he had Thanksgiving dinner in a downtown restaurant by himself. He checked out the next day and was not heard from for more than a week.

By Dec. 6, detectives were hot on Gleeson’s trail. Ivan Harris, a senior FBI agent in Tinley Park, said investigators had traced Gleeson to a room in the Scottish Inn in Ormond Beach, Fla., after he logged onto his Internet account through a television in his hotel room.

A day later, agents plastered wanted posters throughout the area, showing Gleeson’s picture, a description of his mini-van and its license plate number.

After checking out of the Scottish Inn, Gleeson drove to an oceanfront parking lot several miles away, in Daytona Beach. There, a tow-truck driver recognized the mini-van and called police.

Daytona Beach Sgt. Al Tolley said police surrounded the van on the night of Dec. 7 and saw Gleeson sleeping on the floor in the back seat. Tolley said Gleeson had been sleeping on a gun but did not resist arrest.

“We did ask him where the children were, and he said, `I think I want to talk to my lawyer,'” Tolley said.

Gleeson initially fought extradition but was returned to Michigan, where he was charged with killing Fuglseth.

Will County State’s Atty. Jeff Tomczak said his office received a full copy of the Michigan case Monday and has begun to review evidence. Autopsies performed on Ashley and Joshua showed they had been dead several days, but it was not clear when or where they were shot.

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“The main focus is to determine where the proper venue is for the murder cases,” he said.

He said prosecutors in Michigan and Illinois were reviewing forensic evidence taken from the mini-van, Fuglseth’s house and the area where the children’s bodies were found.

Blue ribbons on door

Late Monday afternoon, family and friends gathered in the Dwight apartment where the children had lived with their mother. Blue ribbons decorated the door.

Rhonda Branz, who is in charge of all the Girl Scout groups in Dwight, met Smith earlier this year when Smith became a volunteer leader for Ashley’s group.

She described Smith as a doting mother and said Ashley was known for always being the first one at Girl Scout meetings, eager to learn. She described Ashley as a bit of a mother hen to her younger brother, who also attended the meetings.

Friends say they are trying to comfort Smith but are having a hard time dealing with the killings themselves.

“We’re obviously devastated,” said family friend Barbara Hutson.

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Tracing the Gleeson case

Officials found the body of 5-year-old Ashley Gleeson in the Des Plaines River near Channahon Monday, not far from where Joshua Gleeson’s body was found a day earlier.

Nov. 22: Patrick Gleeson, 48, picks up his children, Joshua and Ashley, from their home in Dwight for a weekend visit.

Nov. 25: Gleeson calls Edna Smith, the children’s mother, to ask for more time with them. Smith refuses, and he says he’ll return them.

Nov. 29: The body of Gleeson’s girlfriend, Dena Fuglseth, 43, is found in the basement of the home they shared near Holland, Mich.

Dec. 2: A nationwide alert is issued for Gleeson’s arrest.

Dec. 7: Gleeson is arrested in Daytona Beach, Fla., for the slaying of Fuglseth. He refuses to tell police the whereabouts of his children.

Sunday: Two fishermen find the body of Joshua, 3, floating in Big Basin Marina on the Des Plaines River in Channahon.

Monday: Officials recover Ashley’s body about one-eighth of a mile from where Joshua’s body was found.

Source: News reports

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