1113 Barber Lane, Joliet.
The Will County Sheriff’s Department is providing assistance to the Rolling Meadows police department at 1113 Barber Lane near Ingalls Avenue in Joliet in the search for human remains.
Scott Slocum of WJOL was on the scene as investigators cordoned off the area.
The remains are tied to the 1977 murder conviction of Russell Smrekar, a 1974 graduate of Joliet West High School, who died in 2011 in Menard Correctional Center. Smrekar was convicted of the brutal shotgun slayings of Lincoln shop owner Jay Fry and his pregnant wife, Robin. Smrekar was sentenced to two 100- to 300-year prison sentences.
According to The State Journal Register, on his deathbed Smrekar also confessed to killing Ruth Martin of Lincoln and burying her remains under a section of I-55 which was then under construction. He also confessed to killing Michael Mansfield of Rolling Meadows, who had been Smrekar’s classmate at Lincoln College.
The home on Barber Lane was once owned by a relative of Smrekar but has been empty for two years.