Relative of Carl Reimann victim slams parole board decision in letter

The daughter-in-law of one of Carl Reimann’s five murder victims has sent a letter to the Prisoner Review Board criticizing them for releasing Reimann early on parole in April.

Barbara Wartelle, the daughter-in-law of George Pashade, a 74-year-old chef who was one of the five people Reimann was convicted of killing in a 1972 Yorkville robbery, wrote a letter to the board and has agreed to share it with this publication. Wartelle, who now lives in California, was once married to George Pashade Jr., and is mother to two of the elder Pashade’s six grandchildren.

Reimann, 77, is temporarily housed at the Dixon Correctional Center while he awaits a process that will determine if he will again be released.

The Prisoner Review Board voted 8-4 on April 26 to release Reimann on parole, after which he moved into a home in La Grange, but officials there voiced concerns about him living directly across the street from an elementary school. He was then moved to a structured living home in Calumet City, but officials in that town voiced the same concerns, as he was approximately a block away from another elementary school. He was then taken back to the Dixon prison, where a panel of board members will determine if he will be re-released.

Prisoner Review Board spokesman Jason Sweat has said Reimann will have the opportunity for a preliminary hearing before a hearing officer, though he can waive his right to that hearing. Reimann’s case will then be reviewed by one of the Prisoner Review Board members on June 12 and decided by a three-member panel of those board members, possibly on the same day.

Sweat said the panel will determine if Reimann committed a violation of his parole, and whether to re-release him. They will then evaluate if he has a place to live that adheres to his parole restrictions, Sweat said.

Victims’ family members and others can send correspondence to the board regarding Reimann’s re-release. However, the board’s meeting is not open to the public, according to Sweat.

Relatives of the victims, law enforcement and others have voiced their opposition to Reimann's parole, with one group posting an online petition at Change.org seeking the revocation of his parole.

Wartelle, who said her family is still haunted by the killings, wrote that Reimann’s victims were killed “not because they refused to cooperate with what was possibly intended to be a simple armed robbery” but that they “were purposely selected to die in an execution manner with many shot between the eyes.”

She acknowledged that Betty Piche, Reimann’s accomplice in the robbery, did not pull the trigger, hence her shorter prison sentence, but wrote that Piche “did nothing to stop the mayhem.” Piche died in 2004.

Wartelle noted that Reimann had gone before the Prisoner Review Board several times before and “many times was rightly refused parole.”

“Now appears the muddled blurring of this picture,” Wartelle wrote. “Carl Reimann has been paroled, however, no community wants or will accept him and to this I applaud their good sense.”

In her letter, Wartelle calculates that Reimann served nine years in prison for each life he took.

“Are the powers of justice so compromised that they are allowed to decide what is forgiven and when?” she wrote. “Our loved ones cannot rise to life; their fate was permanently sealed while the five-time murderer with presumed sentence served is paroled after serving a mere nine years for each murder? What message does this send to other murderers or society?”

Wartelle wrote that she understood Reimann had found religion while in prison, and referenced the role in the Hinsdale Covenant Church and a pair of church members in getting him released on parole.

“No doubt words to the effect that Reimann has found Jesus and has a ‘plan’ were used,” she wrote. “I say wonderful. ... now allow Reimann help others in prison, with whom he can easily identify, find Jesus. For those who truly believe in Reimann’s sincere religious endeavors, help Reimann with radio or TV broadcasts saving sinners from behind bars.”

The early release, she wrote, “insults and disrespects all the victims, remaining family, friends, and society.”

“Our hearts still grieve; did you think we ever could forget?” she wrote. “It is not too late for the Parole Board to rectify an unconscionable wrong, revoke Carl Reimann’s #CO 1252 early parole if for no other reason an egregious error has occurred, allow justice to be served.”