Illinois
Fundraiser, vigil held for children of Melissa Aud-Headlee, slain Joliet, Illinois woman
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) — A community in mourning united in Joliet Friday evening to help raise money to stop domestic violence.
As friends and family of Melissa Aud-Headlee came to terms with her death at the hands of her estranged husband, they sought to raise money for her three children.
They gathered outside Aud-Headlee’s home, collecting money for a raffle and a candlelight vigil.
A GoFundMe for Aud-Headlee’s children has raised more than $8,000.
Aud-Headlee was stabbed to death by her estranged husband in a murder-suicide this past Saturday morning.
Melissa Aud-Headlee’s older brother, Daniel Ronczkowski, told CBS 2 he was helping his sister plant flower beds on Saturday. When they ran out of mulch, he said he offered to run to the store.
He was only gone a few minutes when he got a call to come back. Melissa Aud-Headlee’s estranged husband, Michael Aud-Headlee, had been watching them from a distance, and confronted his estranged wife inside the home once her brother was gone.
Her family said she put down their 3-year-old son and told him to “run and hide.” After a struggle inside, she ran for a neighbor’s house.
But Joliet Police said that’s when Michael Aud-Headlee caught up to her in the middle of the street and stabbed her multiple times in the chest with a kitchen knife before turning the knife on himself.
Joliet police told CBS 2 they’d been called to the home for mostly domestic violence-related incidents nine times since 2021. Melissa Aud-Headlee had taken out two orders of protection against her then-estranged husband before he took her life.
The Chicago Bears released a statement on Wednesday after Illinois legislators took a step forward with keeping the team in the state.
Shortly after the bill passed out of a House committee 15-5 and then was passed again by the full House, the Bears said the bill is not enough for them.
“We welcome the progress made on the House’s version of the mega project bill; however, additional amendments are necessary to make the Arlington Heights site feasible for our stadium project. We support Illinois leaders as they determine the path forward to making the essential changes to the mega project bill and aligning on infrastructure funding,” the team said in a statement.
The vote on Wednesday came after lawmakers spent weeks working to address concerns and criticism that the bill provided incentives to the team to leave Chicago and surrounding potential revenue shortfalls to area schools if the stadium is built in Arlington Heights.
Despite the team’s dissatisfaction, the megaprojects bill, which would allow the Bears to negotiate property tax payments directly with the Village of Arlington Heights, is headed now to the Senate.
A key piece of legislation designed to keep the Chicago Bears’ stadium project in Illinois is being weighed, and Rose Schmidt has details on what’s in it.
That said, the bill’s lead Senate sponsor State Sen. Bill Cunningham told NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern that legislators “feel no pressure to take a vote next week” when the Senate returns on Tuesday.
“We will work this bill like any other bill,” Cunningham said.
Though the team is not satisfied with the deal, it seems Illinois Governor Pritzker is.
“Governor Pritzker has been clear and consistent for years that the Bears should remain in Illinois, and that any legislation needs to protect taxpayers. Throughout the past few months, the Governor’s Office brought team leadership, local officials, and legislative partners to the table to craft a deal around public infrastructure improvements, property tax fairness, and affordability measures. Today is an important step, and the Governor’s Office looks forward to working with the Illinois General Assembly to advance a bill that reflects our shared priorities,” Pritzker’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.
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