St. Charles

Deaths of 2 found in car in St. Charles under investigation

Mar 17, 2017 | WLSAM Staff

(ST. CHARLES) Two people died after being found unresponsive inside a parked car Thursday morning in west suburban St. Charles.

Officers were called at 8:08 a.m. to a report of a suspicious vehicle in a parking lot in the first block of North 17th Street, according to a statement from St. Charles police.

A man and woman, both 18, were found back seat and taken to Delnor Hospital in Geneva, where they were pronounced dead.

Police identified them as St. Charles resident Kody R. Dietrich and Adalina Elizabeth Donoso of Racine, Wisconsin.

“There was no obvious indication as to the cause of death,” police said.

Autopsies were scheduled for Friday.

Dad shot girls, wife and himself: St. Charles police

Mar 13, 2017 | WLSAM Staff

(ST. CHARLES) In a 911 call, Randall Coffland told a dispatcher he had shot his twin daughters, his wife and was going to shoot himself, St. Charles police said Sunday.

Two 9 mm handguns were found in the condominium where Randall Coffland and his twin, 16-year-old daughters Brittany and Tiffany Coffland lived, police said. One gun was found near Randall Coffland’s body; the other in a closet.

It appeared each girl was shot once to the head, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. Randall Coffland also was shot in the head. Coffland’s wife and the twin’s mother, Anjum Coffland, 46, was wounded in both legs, police said. Autopsies will be performed Monday.

Randall Coffland had a firearm owners identification card, police said.

The shootings Friday shook the usually quiet town of St. Charles.

Brittany Coffland sometimes shared glimpses of troubled home life that affected her deeply, a classmate related Sunday standing in front of a memorial.

“I didn’t really think much of it. A lot of teenagers think their parents are crazy,” Gabrielle Willaert said, fighting back tears. “And she would always talk about how she didn’t know if she could get her assignments done because she wasn’t having a good home life.”

Willaert, 17, was in an honors English class with Brittany at St. Charles East High School.

“But she stayed so strong, you could tell how much she was hurting . . . there was just something about her, you knew she had been through a lot. . . . She just felt like no one cared and all my friends in English tried to make her feel like she was cared about.”

Despite her own struggles, or perhaps because of them, Brittany always sought to comfort and care for others.

“If anyone was having a bad day it would be her priority to make sure they were OK, even if she didn’t know them, Willaert said.

“She had the biggest heart. She would ask every day how my life was going,” Willaert said. “She was nonstop smiling.”

“I can’t believe that something like this would happen to such beautiful people,” she said.

“Like everyone else, you wonder if you could done something to have made a difference,” said Dan Lasse, who works on the same block where the shooting happened, as he paused in front of the memorial Sunday afternoon.

Two rescued from apartment fire in St. Charles

Jun 1, 2015 | WLSAM Staff

(ST. CHARLES) Firefighters rescued two people, one of which was in a wheelchair, from an apartment fire Saturday night in west suburban St. Charles.

When firefighters responded to the fire about 11:50 p.m. at an apartment complex at 1742 Cumberland Green Dr., there was heavy smoke coming from the second floor and they found one person hanging over the balcony and another person in a wheelchair trapped in a bedroom, according to a statement from the St. Charles Fire Department.

One person was taken to Delnor Hospital in Geneva while the other person was treated at the scene, fire officials said. No firefighters were injured in the blaze.

The fire was brought under control in about 30 minutes, leaving the apartment uninhabitable with damage estimated at $100,000, officials said.

Aurora man convicted of murder gets 25 more years for attempted murder

May 1, 2015 | WLSAM Staff

(ST. CHARLES) An Aurora man already facing 60 years in prison for murder was sentenced to 25 more years Wednesday after he was found guilty of trying to commit a second murder.

Enrique L. Torres, 31, was convicted of attempted murder in August 2014 in connection with an April 2007 shooting in Aurora, according to a statement from the Kane County state’s attorney’s office.

About 3 a.m. on April 14, 2007, Torres and two others were in a car looking for rival gang members near Summit and Hill avenues. After seeing two people in a car nearby, Torres got out of his vehicle and opened fire, prosecutors said. One person was shot in the left thigh.

Later that day, Torres shot and killed 31-year-old Edgar Hill of Hillside in an Aurora hotel parking lot, prosecutors said. Torres was convicted of murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison in that case.

The two sentences will be served consecutively, prosecutors said.