A Will County judge is expected to rule next month on whether statements Barry Lee Whelpley made at a Minnesota police station about the 1972 murder of Naperville teenager Julie Ann Hanson can be used against him.
Whelpley, now 79, was arrested in 2021 after DNA evidence linked him to Hanson’s murder. Hanson, 15, disappeared while riding a bicycle on July 7, 1972, and her body was found the next day in a ditch along 87th Street, not far from Modaff Road.
Investigators said the teen had been stabbed 36 times and sexually assaulted.
At a court appearance Thursday, Whelpley’s attorneys argued his Fifth Amendment rights were violated when police spoke to him for seven hours at his Mounds View, Minnesota, home without reading him his Miranda rights. They continued to be violated, they said, after he was taken into custody when results from a buccal swab test linked his DNA to a sample from Hanson, they said.
Will County Judge David Carlson previously ruled that statements made at the home were inadmissible. Defense attorneys filed a motion last year to suppress all statements made by Whelpley at the police station.
Whelpley’s attorney Tracy Stanker said police used an interrogation technique in which they asked questions first and then warn later.
She said that while Whelpley was read his Miranda rights when he was taken into custody, the same officers had been questioning him previously and referenced statements he made at the house. The interrogation at the police station came less than an hour after Whelpley was questioned at his home, and those statements should be suppressed, Stanker said.
Naperville police Sgt. John Reed testified Thursday that Whelpley was not in custody when Naperville and Minnesota police officers executed a search warrant in 2021 at his home.
Whelpley was never handcuffed, and he was allowed to get water and coffee, move about freely and was told he wasn’t under arrest, Reed said.
Whelpley did not have to speak to officers if he didn’t want to, Reed said, adding that whenever possible he uses a friendly, soft and genteel approach when interacting with possible suspects.
Whelpley was not going to be placed in custody until they had the lab results from the swab test, Reed said.
Once DNA evidence was confirmed, Whelpley was arrested and his rights read to him, Reed said.
Defense attorney Terry Ekl countered that Whelpley was always in custody, alleging police were trying to get a confession from him by interrogating him at his home. Whelpley likely wouldn’t have been comfortable talking to police if his Miranda rights were given, Ekl said.
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He added that Whelpley wasn’t free to move about his home, noting he had to be escorted to the bathroom and was told to leave the door open.
Assistant State’s Attorney Christopher Koch said officers did not thwart Whelpley’s Miranda rights.
Whelpley made voluntary statements, was not coerced or threatened, and acknowledged that he understood his rights, he said.
He was not in custody at his home, but statements Whelpley made at the police station should be admissible, Koch said.
The next court hearing is scheduled for Feb. 6.
Whelpley has been held at the Will County jail since being returned to the area following his arrest.
He grew up in Naperville, graduating from Naperville Community High School in 1964. Now a retired welder, Whelpley was 27 at the time of Hanson’s murder and lived in the 600 block of South Wehrli Drive, within a mile of Hanson’s residence.
The case was considered an unsolved murder until technological advancements in DNA and genetic genealogy analysis produced information that linked Whelpley to Hanson’s murder, police said.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.