Witnesses testify to spotting man accused of killing Kelli O'Laughlin

BRIDGEVIEW – Defense attorney John Paul Carroll still wants to know, if his client John Wilson stabbed Kelli O'Laughlin to death and left her in a pool of blood, then why didn't any witnesses who saw him later after the crime see blood on his clothes.

He also wants to know, if the house in Indian Head Park was ransacked in a burglary, could it also have been ransacked to cover up a suicide by the 14-year-old Lyons Township High School student, who just suffered the humiliation of getting two C's on her report card.

Witnesses were again called to the stand in Day 3 in the trial of John Wilson Jr., accused of brutally stabbing the young girl when she allegedly caught him in the act of burglarizing her home Oct. 27, 2011.

Among them was Willow Springs resident Shelagh Juracic. She testified she saw Wilson climbing over a guardrail on Plainfield Road after trudging through an embankment that skirted a frontage road leading to the victim's home shortly after the murder occurred.

Carroll asked what it was that drew her attention to Wilson, who is black. Carroll has insinuated that police investigators fixated prematurely on Wilson as a suspect because he was a black man seen in an affluent white community.

Juracic said he got her attention not because he was black, but because he chose such a difficult path to get to Plainfield Road.

Juracic told the court she later called police after learning of the murder of the girl, who lived a short distance from where she saw Wilson climbing over the guardrail.

Juracic was one of three people who went to the La Grange Police Department on Nov. 3, 2011, to view a lineup. Seeing Wilson, holding a No. 2, Juracic said she crumpled and began sobbing.

“I was very emotional and crying,” she said. “When I saw that individual, I realized I saw the person who killed Kelli on that afternoon.”

Also testifying today was a 13-year-old boy who came into contact with Wilson moments before meeting up with his mother at Sacajawea Park, located next door to the O'Laughlin home.

The boy and his mother, who testified yesterday, both pointed out Wilson as the man they saw shortly before the time investigators believe the girl was killed.