The murder of Jaclyn Marie Dowaliby is an unsolved child murder which occurred in Midlothian, Illinois, on September 10, 1988, when a seven-year-old girl was abducted from her bedroom and murdered by an unknown individual or individuals. Her strangled body was discovered in a section of wasteland in Blue Island four days later.
Dowaliby's mother and stepfather were tried for her murder in 1990; her mother was acquitted, although her adoptive father, David Dowaliby, was convicted of her murder and sentenced to 45 years' imprisonment. His conviction was later overturned, and he was released from prison in November 1991. The case remains unsolved, and has been described as one of Metropolitan Chicago's most infamous cold cases.
Early life Jaclyn Dowaliby was born on May 17, 1981 in Chicago, Illinois, the first and only child born to James "Jimmy" and Cynthia Guess. The couple had met in the 1970s at a skating rink where Jaclyn's father worked when her mother was a teenager and her father in his early 20s; the two began a relationship which lasted for seven years but mutually separated shortly before Jaclyn's birth. Shortly thereafter, Jaclyn's parents engaged in a bitter feud over custody of her, which Cynthia ultimately won.
In approximately 1982, Jaclyn's mother became acquainted with David Dowaliby, whom she married when her daughter was two years old. Six months after their wedding, David Dowaliby legally adopted Jaclyn, who viewed Dowaliby as her father and—having never seen her father since infancy—reportedly believed him to be so. One year later, in 1984, her half-brother, David Jr., was born. The family were observed to be loving and close-knit, with one neighbor recollecting: "They were a loving family; they were always hugging their kids ... they never yelled at them. They never even spanked them; they'd send them to their rooms or take away their bikes. They didn't believe in corporal punishment."
Jaclyn has been described as a happy, "bubbly" and content child who enjoyed playing with dolls and was popular among her peers at Central Park Elementary School. Her mother worked within the dietary department at Oak Forest Hospital, and her stepfather as a construction foreman at Rax Erecting Service.
By 1988, the family resided in a one-story ranch-style home on 148th Street in a middle-class section of Midlothian, Illinois, surrounded by several nature reserves. The house was owned by David Dowaliby's mother, Anna, who also resided at the residence and who slept in a basement bedroom. That summer, Cynthia discovered she was pregnant with her third child.
September 9–10, 1988 On the afternoon of September 9, 1988, Cynthia took her two children to a local Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner while her husband visited a Blue Island bowling alley with some friends. He returned home at 9:20 p.m. to observe his wife and children at home with two family members, who both left the household shortly thereafter.
At 10:30 p.m. that evening, Jaclyn—then seven years old—dressed in her nightgown and kissed her mother goodnight before climbing into her bed with a Sears catalog, which she began reading. Her stepfather retired to bed at approximately the same time.
At approximately 11 p.m., Jaclyn's mother checked on her daughter, only to observe her sound asleep in her bed; Cynthia switched off the light in her daughter's bedroom and went to sleep herself, leaving both her children's bedroom doors slightly ajar. Both parents remained adamant they slept soundly throughout the night and heard nothing untoward.
Abduction At 8 a.m. on September 10, David Dowaliby awoke. According to statements given to police, he was surprised not to observe Jaclyn already awake and watching cartoons in the living room. Upon checking her bedroom, David noted the child was neither asleep or playing with toys upon her bedroom floor, although he did observe an open suitcase—which Jaclyn occasionally played with—lying on her bed and her dresser drawers open, with items of her clothing in disarray. With the exception of the child's blanket, nothing was missing from her bedroom.
Initially, David assumed Jaclyn may be playing outside with a friend and sat to watch cartoons with his son. One hour later, he woke Cynthia by bringing her a cup of coffee and remarked his belief Jaclyn was playing outside; Cynthia rapidly became alarmed at her daughter's absence.
A search of the house revealed no trace of Jaclyn, although the Dowalibys did note the kitchen door to their property—typically locked at nights—was slightly ajar. After briefly checking at a neighbor's home to inquire if Jaclyn was playing with a friend, David and Cynthia Dowaliby returned to their home only to observe en route that the screen door to a basement window had been cut or torn open and the window itself had been smashed, through which an individual had evidently unlatched the window as a potential point of entry to the property. The Dowalibys then reported their daughter as missing to the Midlothian Police Department.
Investigation Midlothian Police immediately launched an intense search to locate the child. This extensive search of local terrain involved the usage of all-terrain vehicles and search and rescue dogs. Officers were assisted in their search of areas of interest by local firefighters and numerous civilian volunteers, and an underwater search and recovery unit would dredge a swamp located a block from the Dowaliby household. The U.S. Coast Guard also conducted an aerial search for the child, to no avail. In addition, numerous missing persons flyers were distributed throughout Cook County and friends and neighbors of the family tied numerous yellow ribbons to oak trees upon the streets surrounding the Dowaliby household in symbolic gestures of hope and solidarity.
A forensic examination of the house itself yielded few clues, although an examination of the broken basement window revealed an even layer of dust on the windowsill inside the home and no recently deposited hairs or fibers upon this surface, indicating the intruder or intruders had not entered the premises via this method; however, a smudge described as being an "indeterminate mark on the wall" was discovered directly beneath this window. Both this smudge and other smear marks noted upon the front door to the property were unsuitable to enable the lifting of fingerprints.
Beyond the damaged window, the child's missing blanket and mild disarray in her bedroom—located directly opposite her parents' room—the house bore few signs of a forced entry, although a forensic examination of Jaclyn's pillow did reveal a human hair described in police reports as originating from a black individual. The parents were both adamant that they had heard nothing untoward the evening prior, and questioning of neighbors revealed they too had seen and heard nothing untoward in the early hours of September 10. The broken basement window was located far from Jaclyn's bedroom, and any kidnapper entering via this method would evidently have to then walk up the stairs and down a hallway with markedly squeaky floorboards to enter the child's bedroom. These factors led investigators to believe the perpetrator may have been familiar with the layout of the household.
Initial theories As Jaclyn's biological father is known to have once attempted to break into the Dowaliby household to kidnap his daughter following his failure to secure custody of her, James Guess became a prime suspect in her abduction; however, police soon discounted him as a suspect upon learning he had been imprisoned in Florida since May 23, having been sentenced to seven years' imprisonment upon two counts of sexual battery, one count of threatening another with a deadly weapon, and one count of attempted sexual battery.
Initially, a police spokesman confirmed the likelihood Jaclyn had been the victim of a kidnapping, with her abductor or abductors most likely leaving the house with the child via the kitchen door, although authorities stated they maintained an open mind as to the actual motive behind her disappearance; however, as no ransom demands were made, the day after Jaclyn's abduction, state and local authorities requested the FBI become involved in the manhunt to locate the child.
In the days immediately following their daughter's abduction, the Dowalibys willingly submitted to any police requests to assist in their ongoing investigation. On September 13, David Dowaliby was asked to undergo a polygraph test, to which he agreed. The polygraph test was conducted in Chicago, and according to David, he was informed by the FBI that the examination indicated the truthfulness of his answers.
Discovery At approximately 5:45 p.m. on September 14, 1988, a man named Michael Chatman discovered Jaclyn's body discarded upon a section of wasteland close to a garbage receptacle serving a small apartment complex named the Islander Apartments within the city of Blue Island, approximately from her home. The body lay in a section of brush at the edge of a small wooded area overlooking the Calumet River. Chatman would later state that upon parking his vehicle, he had become suspicious of a putrid odor and, upon investigation, noted a head and arm protruding from a purple and white blanket which concealed her entire body beneath the upper torso. The body was transported to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office, and was formally identified via dental records the following day.
An autopsy conducted by Dr. Robert Stein revealed Jaclyn had been strangled with a two-foot section of twine which was still knotted around her neck. Her body was dressed in her purple nightgown, although her underwear had been removed and discarded close to her body. Both weathering and maggot predation prevented a detailed forensic examination of the child's clothing, although a single hair of Caucasian origin was discovered inside her underwear and a single hair sourcing from a black individual was discovered upon the section of twine around the child's neck. Furthermore, her fingernails bore traces of type O blood; this blood type was shared by Jaclyn and all her immediate family with the exception of David Sr., whose blood type was type A.
Due to the extensive decomposition of Jaclyn's body, Dr. Stein was unable to determine if the child had been subjected to a sexual assault prior to or after her death, although he was unable to discount the possibility. Furthermore, the advanced decomposition and maggot infestation of her remains led Stein to estimate that Jaclyn had most likely been murdered sometime in the morning of September 10.
Further inquiries Prior to the discovery of Jaclyn's body, and after eliminating her biological father as a suspect, investigators had pursued two leads of investigation: that the child had been kidnapped in a non-family abduction; or that one or both of her parents had been responsible. The fact that the dust upon the basement windowsill had been undisturbed and the intruder had evidently not entered the property via this method led investigators to presume the break-in via the basement window had been staged. The day the child's body was discovered, David was again called into the police station to submit to a polygraph test; on this occasion, he was informed the results were inconclusive. Midway through a five-hour interrogation, David was informed the body of a young girl had been discovered at Blue Island. Cynthia herself was answering questions from two police officers at her home when she received news of the discovery; she collapsed and wept.
Eyewitness sighting