Search results
May 7, 2021 · 3-year-old Riley Fox was found inside a creek a little distance away from her home in Wilmington, Illinois. In a case that saw numerous twists and even a false arrest, justice was finally delivered when the perpetrator was caught and made to pay for his crimes.
Mar 21, 2023 · WILMINGTON, IL — Kevin Fox, the former Wilmington man who was wrongly arrested by the Will County Sheriff's Department for murdering his 3-year-old daughter Riley Fox in the summer of 2004,...
Mar 21, 2023 · Kevin Fox was arrested for the murder of his 3-year-old daughter, RIley, spent eight months in jail before the FBI discovered that the DNA found on Riley's body did not match her father, but ...
- tafeurer@cbs.com
- 35 sec
- Web Producer at CBS News And Stations
- Todd Feurer
- Riley Fox Is Found Murdered
- Police Focus on Riley Fox’s Father in Her Murder
- Riley Fox’s Father Is Arrested For Her Murder
- DNA Evidence Proves Essential in Riley Fox Case
- Fox Family Files Civil Rights Lawsuit
- The Search For Riley’s Killer Continues
- Remembering Riley Fox
On June 6, 2004, the lives of the Fox family changed forever. That weekend, Melissa, then 25, and a group of friends participated in the AVON Walk for Breast Cancer in Chicago, where she stayed for two nights -- the longest she’d ever been away from her children. Kevin stayed home with the kids. Melissa adored Riley and cherished her time with her ...
Nearly 6,000 people attended Riley’s funeral a few days after she’d been found. The attendees wore pink, Riley’s favorite color, and buttons with her picture on it while Martina McBride’s “She’s a Butterfly” played through the speakers. Riley was buried in the white flower girl dress she had worn to her uncle’s wedding just two weeks before her mur...
Months passed with little movement on the case. On Oct. 26, 2004, the Foxes received a call from the Will County Sheriff’s Office asking them to come to the office as there were new developments in the case. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is it. They found the person,” Melissa said. “We were just grinning from ear to ear like we’re finally going to...
When Chad Fox learned of his brother Kevin’s interrogation, he rushed to the building where he worked and waited outside the door of a neighboring attorney’s office. Chad had suggested months earlier that Melissa and Kevin speak with an attorney, but they felt they didn’t need one. Little did they know, Chad was not referring to just any attorney. ...
Upon Kevin’s arrest, Zellner filed a civil rights lawsuit against Will County, the Will County Sheriff’s Office, multiple sheriff’s detectives who investigated the case, the former Will County State’s Attorney, the polygraph examiner and the forensic interviewer who spoke with Tyler, and others. Zellner's claims for Kevin Fox included violations of...
After the civil trial, the Fox family turned its attention to finding Riley’s real killer. Melissa called for outside agencies to take up the investigation. Years passed and Melissa grew weary, but never gave up hope that her daughter’s killer would be brought to justice. In 2009, the FBI took over the case after Will County State’s Attorney James ...
In the years that passed after Riley’s murder, Melissa and Kevin had another child -- a daughter -- but their marriage couldn’t survive the trauma their family had endured. They moved, got divorced and are both now remarried with new families. “Melissa's a remarkably courageous, resilient person who had the character to stick with [Kevin] because s...
- 7 min
- Jenner Smith,Joseph Diaz
Mar 22, 2023 · Back in 2004, Kevin Fox was accused of killing his three-year-old daughter Riley in suburban Wilmington, and though he was cleared by DNA evidence, his life was never the same.
- 2 min
May 5, 2021 · Kevin Fox with his daughter Riley. Melissa Hodgen. When the FBI began its investigation in 2009, it was two years after a jury awarded Fox and his then-wife, Melissa Fox, $15.5 million for the Will County Sheriff's Office investigators' false arrest and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The settlement later was reduced by about half.
On June 6, 2004, the night of the disappearance, Riley's father Kevin Fox had picked up his children from their grandmother's house around 1 am. Because the kids' beds didn't have clean sheets and blankets on them, he laid Riley on the couch and Riley's older brother Tyler on the living room chair.
