NAPERVILLE, Ill. — A 76-year-old Minnesota man has been arrested in the stabbing death of a 15-year-old suburban Chicago girl nearly half a century ago, authorities said Friday.
The Naperville Police Department arrested Barry Lee Whelpley of Mounds View, Minnesota, on Wednesday for the 1972 slaying of Julie Ann Hanson. The retired welder, who was 27 at the time of the killing, has been charged with murder and was taken into custody in Minnesota.
At a court hearing Friday, Whelpley waived extradition to Illinois and is expected to return to the state in the next few days, Naperville Police Chief Robert Marshall said. It wasn’t clear whether he has an attorney.
The girl was reported missing July 8, 1972, after last being seen riding away from her home on a bicycle. Her body was discovered later that day in a field in Naperville. She had been stabbed 36 times and sexually assaulted, investigators said at the time.
No suspects were immediately identified and Marshall said through the years those suspects who were identified were “all eliminated through the exhaustive investigation of our detectives.” He said Whelpley was never considered a suspect and was never interviewed by police.
