Serial Killer Brian Dugan #truecrime

From February 25 1983 to June 2 1985, a depraved killer took the lives of 3 people in the suburbs of Chicago. The youngest to die at the hands of this creature was only 7 years old. He also assaulted multiple women and girls in addition to the murders. In his childhood he exhibited Al 3 of the early indicators of a psychopath who could grow up to kill.

Brian Dugan, the Illinois Creeper

Brian Dugan was born on September 23rd 1956 in Nashua, New Hampshire. There were complications during his birth which family suspected led to brain damage and the problems that plagued his childhood. His alcoholic parents had 5 kids- 4 sons and 1 daughter.

From an early age Brian suffered from extreme headaches. They were accompanied by vomiting and he was prescribed medication until he was a teenager. In addition to these headaches he demonstrated signs of psychopathy and the warning signs of a future killer.

The 3 warning signs, known as Macdonalds triad, are bedwetting, cruelty to animals, and fire setting, and all 3 were present throughout Dugans childhood. At age 8 he burned down the family’s garage and at 13 he used gasoline to burn a cat. In 1967, the Dugan family moved to Lisle, Illinois.

In 1972, at age 16, Brian’s legal troubles began. He dropped out of school and ran away from home and was arrested for burgulary and spent some time in a group home. When he returned home his brother reported that he attempted to touch him inappropriately indicating possible abuse at the group home.

Dugan would later claim that in 1972, he met a man in a grocery store who offered him a job. The 16 year old went with the man, who instead abused him then dropped him off after giving him some money. In 1978, Dugan saw the man on television being arrested and learned his name was John Wayne Gacy.

In 1974, Brian tried to kidnap a young girl from a train station. He was arrested, but the charges were eventually dropped. He became more violent, and threatened to kill his sister and her child in 1975. This was the same year that his father died of cirrhosis of the liver.

Dugans relatively minor crimes continued until a 3 year incarceration from 1979 to 1982 in the Menard Correctional facility. He would later tell one of his brothers how he had been assaulted there and how a person had to submit or die when in prison to the demands of other inmates. This victimization spurred the violence in Dugan to commit heinous acts against defenseless victims soon after his release.

The first murder occurred on February 25th, 1983. 10 year old Jeanine Nicarico was kidnapped from her home in Naperville, Illinois. She had stayed home sick from school and was alone while her parents were at work and her sister was at school. Dugan had taken her then abused her before beating her to death. Her body was found on February 27th several miles from her home.

This case received a lot of publicity and a reward was offered for the arrest of her kidnapper. A 20 year old named Rolando Cruz tried to claim the reward by implicating 2 others in the murder. Instead police arrested all 3 and they were put on trial for the killing. 2 of the 3 would end up convicted and sent to prison where they would remain until authorities were forced to release them due to evidence pointing to their innocence.

On July 15 1984 the monster struck again. 27 year old Donna Schnorr was driving when Dugan noticed her. He followed her for a while then ran her off the road. The creature dragged her from her car assaulted and beat her. Dugan then dragged her to a quarry and drowned her.

There was not another killing until Jen 2 1985. Throughout May he abducted and assaulted at least 2 women and tried to take a 3rd but was unable to get her in the car. The series of attack cumlminatwd with the murder of 7 year old Melissa Ackerman.

The young girl was riding her bike in Somonauk Illinois with her friend, 8 year old Opel Horton. A man driving a blue Gremlin stopped and got out then approached the girls. He acted like he was looking for directions until they were within reach. Dugan threw Opel into the car then grabbed Melissa to do the same. While he wrestled her into the car, Opel got out and ran for her life.

With Ackerman in his car; the monster sped off. He assaulted the young girl then drowned her in a creek 15 miles from where he had taken her. 2 weeks later, her body was found only days after what would have been her 8th birthday.

The day after the the last murder, police arrested Dugan at his job. They were following up on an unrelated assault against a woman. Soon they got a description of the killer and his car from Opel Horton and charged Brian Dugan with the murder of Melissa Ackerman.

He confessed to all 3 murders. But later only plead guilty to the killing Ackerman and Schnorr after police found evidence in his car connecting him to the last murders. He was trying his best to avoid the death penalty for the vicious killings. He succeeded and received 2 life sentences. But he slipped through the cracks with regard to the Jeanine Nicorico murder, at least for a while.

In 1995, the 2 men who had been convicted Nicoricos murder were released from prison. An investigation led to the indictment of 14 7 police officers, 3 prosecutors, and 4 sheriffs deputies on charges for conspiring to convict the 2 men despite evidence pointing to their innocence. They were given a $3.5 million dollar settlement for the time they had spent behind bars.

Then the state took its time putting together a case against Dugan for the Nicorico murder. He was indicted in 2005 for the crime after advances in dna testing allowed investigators to match Dugan’s to the dna found on the young girl.

In 2009, he plead guilty but was thankfully still sentenced to death. However in 2011 Illinois abolished capital punishment, and Brian Dugan is currently housed at the Pontiac Correctional facility.

Cruz and the two others, Alejandro Hernandez and Stephen Buckley were then charged with the assault and murder of Jeanine. Despite the lack of evidence, Cruz and Hernandez were convicted and sentenced to death. Buckley’s trial resulted in a deadlocked jury and the charges he was not retried. The 2 men convicted would remain in prison until 1995 when they were able to use the true killers confession to get exonerated. Even so the authorities had this information for years before their release.

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