the original WND story, reader Paul K. has found a more detailed article in the
archives on the murder of Mary Stachowicz, which, as I said the other day, is the exact analog of the Matthew Shepherd murder, except in reverse, and except that the big media has totally ignored it while Matthew Shepherd was made into a Christ figure of our time.
Quarrel preceded slaying, officials say Suspect’s lifestyle allegedly at issue
Chicago Tribune
Sean D Hamill and Kevin Lynch
Nov 18, 2002
A Northwest Side man killed a Chicago woman last week in a brutal attack that occurred because the woman tried to persuade him to change his lifestyle, police and prosecutors said Sunday.
Nicholas Gutierrez, 19, who lived in the apartment above a funeral home at 3630 W. George St. where the body of Mary Stachowicz, 51, was found in a crawl space, was charged Saturday with first-degree murder, attempting to conceal a homicide and burglary for allegedly stealing money from her purse.
Chicago Police Cmdr. Lee Epplen said Gutierrez, who has no criminal record, said in a videotaped confession that while quarreling with Stachowicz on Wednesday afternoon in his apartment he was reminded of debates with his mother.
Gutierrez “said he has issues with his mother and the way Mrs. Stachowicz talked to him gave him flashbacks to his mother,” Epplen said.
Gutierrez told police he became enraged after Stachowicz questioned him about his sexual orientation, said Cook County Assistant State’s Atty. Nancy Galassini during a bond hearing Sunday.
“He got upset with her,” Galassini said. “The defendant punched and kicked and stabbed the victim until he was tired. He then placed a plastic garbage bag over her head and strangled her.”
Gutierrez placed Stachowicz’s body in a crawl space under the floor of his apartment and tried to clean up the blood in his apartment, covering the floorboards with a table and lamp, authorities said.
Gutierrez had lived in the apartment for a year. Stachowicz worked part-time at the funeral home on the first floor of the building and they got to know each other over the last four months, Epplen said.
She went to see Gutierrez on Wednesday afternoon after receiving communion at St. Hyacinth Catholic Church, which is across the street from the funeral home.
Because of where he lived, Epplen said, police questioned Gutierrez soon after Stachowicz was reported missing Wednesday.
Gutierrez, who used to work as a janitor at the funeral home, first told police that the day Stachowicz disappeared, he had a run- in with a man who threatened him, Epplen said. Gutierrez suggested that the man might have burglarized his apartment and then had a run- in with Stachowicz that led to her murder, police said.
When Gutierrez’s story didn’t check out, police questioned him again, and he confessed, Epplen said.
During Gutierrez’s hearing Sunday, prosecutors asked for no bail, arguing that they may seek the death penalty.
“This would most likely be a capital case,” Galassini told Judge Nicholas Ford.
Ford set bond at $3 million after Galassini said prosecutors have a wealth of evidence.
“In addition to his videotaped statement, we have the knife, we have the defendant’s bloody towels, the defendant’s bloody clothes and the body,” she said.
Gutierrez is a ward of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, said his court-appointed defense attorney, Stephen Journey.
He earned a general equivalency diploma in Missouri and most recently worked at a Chicago restaurant, Journey said. He has relatives in the area, Journey said.
Galassini said Gutierrez told police that he became furious after Stachowicz asked him, “Why do you [have sex with] boys instead of girls?”
Friends and family said that it would have been in character for Stachowicz, who has a lengthy list of volunteer work to reach out to someone she thought needed help.
“Those of us who knew her immediately hear her soft voice saying something like, `God wouldn’t approve of the way you’re living your life,”’ said Mary Coleman, a friend and neighbor. “That’s how Mary did things.”
It wouldn’t have been out of character for Stachowicz to see homosexuality as a lifestyle problem, said Alice Kosinski, 43, Stachowicz’s younger sister.
“Because she’s so Catholic, there’s no room for being gay in the Catholic church,” Kosinski said.
Kosinski said her sister’s death is difficult for everyone in her family to fathom.
“We’re not doing that well,” she said. “It just doesn’t make any sense, and somehow we’re going to have to make our peace with it.”