Perpetually Sporadic

I highly recommend catching up with Part I and Part II before reading on.

As I stood in disbelief thoughts raced through my mind. Should I get in my car and chase them down? Do we call the cops? What if something happens to her? It’s all my fault! I took a moment and a deep breath, hoping to calm myself down. I looked at my co-workers and our customer and asked what we should do.

There were no options. We called the police and let them know what happened. They told us they’d be on the lookout for the vehicle and the people. Unfortunately, that was the best they…and we, could do.

I watched the news, looking, listening for any sign of a woman disappearing or worse. I was relieved every time there was nothing.

About a week later it was Halloween. It was Friday and I had an early shift at Starbucks. Since we were given the option, I dressed up as Cleopatra. It was certainly fun seeing peoples faces as they pulled up to the drive thru. I was certain most of them hadn’t even remembered it was Halloween. I worked until noon and then headed to my grandmother’s house for lunch.

After lunch with grandma I headed back to Starbucks to retrieve the paycheck I had forgotten. When I walked up to the counter I was greeted by Jackie. Before I could ask for my check Jackie asked if was there when the cops showed up. I looked at her, very confused, and responded no. She didn’t immediately offer up information, so I asked her why. She directed me to the back room and told me to look at the fridge.

Incredibly confused, I headed to the back to look at the fridge. When I got there, I found this lovely paper attached with tape. It reads: Jonathan W. Wood is wanted by the Elk Grove Village Police Department for questioning. Written in hand next to his photo are the words “Call 911 RIGHT AWAY if you see him!”

This cannot be good. He killed her, that’s it. She has to be missing.

Again, the thoughts ran through my head. I was certain that the picky customer who gave him a ride the week prior was, in fact, in a ditch somewhere.

I snapped the photo of the paper and headed back out to the front. I found Jackie and asked her if she knew why they were looking for him. She said that he was wanted for questioning in a murder. She said that the cops didn’t really say much more than that, but shared that much so that we knew there was a possible danger. I thanked her for the info, got my check and headed home.

I didn’t know what to make of the situation. I talked to a friend that day and told her everything. She assured me that stressing about it wouldn’t be wise and that we didn’t even know the details. I did my best to calm myself down and enjoy my evening. And she was right, we didn’t know the details.

The store was all abuzz when I walked into work the next morning. A series of “Did you hear what happened?” greeted me as I walked into the back room. I don’t remember who filled me in, it may have been a number of people. But, somehow, we’d received more information about the man with his photo on our fridge.

It turns out, he WAS wanted for questioning in regards to a murder. A couple days prior, a woman failed to show up to work. When her co-workers received a scribbled fax, supposedly from the woman, saying that she was going to be out of town for a few days to visit her sick sister, they suspected something was wrong. The co-workers notified the police and asked them to check on her. The woman was found in a closet in her house. There was a bag covering her head. She was dead, and if I remember correctly, beaten.

Her car was missing, the details about her car were on the sheet from the fridge. The police suspected the man with the laptop. They thought he had her car. And they were right. They learned this when he showed up in the neighborhood, in her car. When he saw the cops at the house, he took off. A chase was had, he was caught.

While he still hasn’t admitted to anything, almost three years later, the story is there. After killing the woman in the closet, he grabbed some paper and wrote a note. He got the fax number to her place of employment and stopped at a random business to use their fax machine. Eventually,after sending the fax, he returned to the house, where the police spotted him and chased him down. She had a restraining order against him. How bad can it be when a mother has to get a restraining order against her own son? Yes, the woman in the closet was his mother.

Every so often I do a search to see if any more news has come of this horrendous tale. Not much is out there. He’s in jail, awaiting trial. last I checked, he had finally agreed to being evaluated by a psychiatrist.

And the woman in the red Jeep? She came in to our Starbucks a couple weeks later. When I saw her I filled her in on what had happened. She was shocked, to say the least. She told me he had asked her if she knew of a Catholic church nearby. She said that she pointed up the street to tell him where there was one. He asked for a ride to the church and that she agreed. She said that she agreed, but on the condition that his belongings went in the trunk, his pockets were emptied, and his hands were on the dashboard the entire time. When she finished sharing her story, she left, not as shaken as she should have been.

And that, is my story about a murderer.