TRAGEDY<-----....MAY GOD BLESS THESE KIDS......!!!!!!!!!!!
Im sorry to share this with all of you but,, Its important that we never forget how bad a person can be...
Peace be with all of you,
A@P
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CHICAGO HOME
Shock grips Naperville
March 07, 1999
3 kids found dead in Naperville home
March 06, 1999
Authorities: 3 Naperville children apparently poisoned
March 05, 1999
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SHOCK GRIPS NAPERVILLE
No signs preceded slayings of three siblings
By John Chase
and Jeff Coen
Tribune Staff Writers
March 7, 1999
Six-year-old Emily Lemak had long admired a neighbor's cats, so just three weeks ago her parents bought her a calico of her own and she named it Cupcake. It was just one more gesture by two parents described by friends and neighbors as loving and caring.
So it was all the more stunning when DuPage County authorities said Friday that Emily and her two brothers had been poisoned or drugged late Thursday and tucked into bed for the night. The next morning, the children were found dead, and State's Atty. Joseph Birkett said the crime was being investigated as a "domestic homicide."
What made the horrific scene even more astonishing was that, while Marilyn and David Lemak were going through a divorce, it "was going amicably and constructively," according to Marilyn Lemak's attorney.
"Real progress was being made, especially in the emotional issues of child custody and visitation," said attorney Daniel Kuhn, adding that David Lemak had moved out of the family's three-story, 19th-century Victorian home earlier this year.
Marilyn Lemak was "very even keeled," said Kuhn, who knew of no instances in which the police had been called because of a domestic dispute at the cranberry-colored home in a historic section of Naperville.
And yet there was Birkett on Friday, explaining the circumstances of what police called the first triple homicide in the history of this affluent town: "There is no evidence to suggest that there is any suspect outside of the immediate family. . . . All evidence at this point suggests that this was a domestic homicide."
Birkett did not identify either parent as a suspect in the murder of their three children--Nicholas, 7; Emily, 6; and Thomas, 3. He said David Lemak, 41, was not in the home at the time of the homicides and was cooperating with police. Marilyn Lemak had been taken to Edward Hospital in Naperville and was listed in fair condition Friday evening.
Though Birkett "would not describe her as being under guard," he said police officers were stationed at the hospital.
The news of the slayings shook the family's friends and neighbors, who remembered a pair of loving parents very involved in their young kids' lives. Marilyn Lemak worked part time as a nurse, but often was seen walking or driving her children to and from school every day--or jogging around the neighborhood.
All three children attended Ellsworth Elementary School in Naperville. The youngest was a preschooler at the YMCA Safe and Sound Day Care program that operates out of Ellsworth, said Phoebe Bickhaus, spokeswoman for Naperville Unit School District 203.
"The school tried to call the family home around 8:30 a.m. because they hadn't heard from them about being sick or anything," Bickhaus said. On Saturday, several school social workers were scheduled to be at Ellsworth from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. for any parents or pupils who want to come, Bickhaus said.
Carolin Forsyth cried after telling her 5-year-old daughter, Rachel, about the murders.
"I look at their class photo, and it is shattering," Forsyth said. "I told her that her friend Emily had been murdered and her brothers had been murdered. And she said, 'What is murder?' She said she was very sad."
After she told Rachel, "first she prayed. We went in her room and we prayed that God will take care of Emily and her family. And then she sat down alone with her blanket."
Just last week, Forsyth said Emily sang with the other kindergartners in a class production of "The Three Little Pigs."
Another parent whose daughter attended kindergarten with Emily described Marilyn Lemak as very involved in school activities and said she recently helped organize a clothing exchange as a school fundraiser.
David Lemak also was very involved in his children's lives, acquaintances said. Jim Prescott led a YMCA-sponsored group called Indian Guides, supervising a group of children and parents that included Nicholas and David Lemak. Prescott's older son also was an Indian Guide, while his younger son attended kindergarten with Emily.
He described David as "friendly and involved" in the father-son group, which would go on camping trips and to Chicago Wolves hockey games.
Nicholas was outgoing and well liked. "He wasn't as wild as some of the other boys," said Darette Ly, 7, who was in 2nd grade with the boy. "He was calm. He was, like, really nice."
In class on Thursday, Nicholas "showed me a picture he drew of jets chasing each other," said Darette, who sat next to him in Jan Reid's class.
Gary Espey, whose daughter, Sydni, was one of Nicholas' best friends, said he would come over in the winter to go sledding on a hill at their house. The boy also went with the Espey family several times to watch Sydni play on her hockey team.
Nicholas was "very pleasant" and "very intelligent for his age," Espey said. He recalled how Nicholas mentioned that his parents had separated earlier this year.
"Nick was very outgoing, and he made the comment to me and my wife that Daddy wasn't there, that Daddy had moved out," Espey said.
Though David and Marilyn Lemak's divorce was described as amicable, Marilyn Lemak asked the court last summer for exclusive possession of their home because living with David was "causing serious episodes of stress which have resulted in physical symptoms," according to court records.
David Lemak fought that request, saying that the mortgage on their 1872 Victorian house is $3,500 a month and that he had been paying it. The judge denied her petition in September.
Espey described Marilyn Lemak as "the typical Naperville mother. . . . She was always there picking up the kids after school and allowing a bunch of kids to come home to play."
The expression "typical American family" was used so frequently by neighbors to describe the Lemaks that it became almost a mantra.
They were said to be very proud of their home, which has won several awards for restoration and beautification.
The home once was occupied by a North Central College president, according to neighbors. The family had two dogs--yellow and black Labrador retrievers--and the cat.
Tom Klingbeil, 57, who lives across the alley, said the Lemaks were "a quiet family, an ideal family. The parents spent a lot of time with their kids."
David Lemak had moved out earlier this year and into a home that he rented in the neighborhood on the same street, according to other neighbors.
Nicholas, who classmates said loved military stories, "used to drive around in this little electric police car," Klingbeil said. Emily "looked like a little '60s flower child" with her blond hair and loose-fitting dresses, he said.
He said he never saw the parents fighting, but he knew they were separated.
"When someone told me they were getting a divorce, it was very hard to believe," Klingbeil said. "They were the last couple you would think would get a divorce."
Klingbeil said he was "stupefied" and "devastated" by the deaths. "I've known these kids since they were born."
David Lemak races a little Mazda on the weekends, Klingbeil said, and frequently visited Blackhawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit, Ill.
After graduating from Rush University Medical School in 1984, Lemak did his residency at Ohio State University and was issued his state medical license on April 30, 1987. He practices emergency medicine at Hinsdale Hospital and Bolingbrook Medical Center, according to hospital officials.
His wife obtained her registered nurse's license on Nov. 2, 1984.
They were married in September 1985. But Marilyn filed for divorce in April 1997, according to court records. The request was dismissed four months later but refiled again last June.
An order signed by a judge Jan. 19 indicated that the parties had reached an agreed order regarding visitation and custody. The order did not detail the terms.
The couple were scheduled to appear in court for a status hearing on the case Feb. 25. Neither party showed, according to a clerk at the DuPage County clerk's office.
Less than two weeks ago, Naperville was rocked by news that several high school students allegedly were involved in a bank robbery. Friday's news only added to the sense of shock.
Robert and Margaret Koretke, who were both born in the Naperville neighborhood and have never left, spoke for many when they said the murders deeply saddened them.
"This is not a nice little town anymore," said Robert Koretke, 84. "It's becoming a big, nasty city."
Tribune staff writers Janan Hanna, Cornelia Grumman, Art Barnum, Janita Poe, Eileen Finan, Ginger Orr and Eric Ferkenhoff contributed to this report
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