Headlines that captured DeKalb County’s attention in 2023 included the opening of DeKalb’s first recreational marijuana dispensary, a good Samaritan who saved a child’s life, a plane crash and house explosion, setbacks in the continued controversy of the county-owned nursing home, and the violent deaths of more than one teenager.

In no particular order, here are some of the Daily Chronicle’s top news stories of 2023.

[ Daily Chronicle 2023 photos of the year ]

Northern Illinois University marks 15 years since mass shooting

February marked 15 years since a lone gunman stepped into a Northern Illinois University lecture hall and fatally shot five students, wounding dozens of others and leaving a mark some say won’t ever go away.

NIU survivors and first responders reflected on the Feb. 14, 2008, tragedy that left five dead and dozens others injured. The Daily Chronicle invited sources to opine on how DeKalb has evolved since.

Catalina Garcia, 20; Daniel Parmenter, 20; Ryanne Mace, 19; Julianna Gehant, 32; and Gayle Dubowski, 20, were killed in the shooting, and more than 30 others were injured.

Some of the victims’ loved ones, friends and families gathered on the campus in February to bear witness to an annual memorial event outside Cole Hall.

Former NIU President John Peters, who led the school at the time, said he believes the Huskie spirit still endures today.

And survivors and witnesses reflected on Illinois’ new gun ban, passed earlier this year, that in part requires owners of semi-automatic firearms to register their weapons with the state of Illinois and also bans the sale or manufacture of semi-automatic weapons.

Since its passing, the legislation has brought frenzied debate among those who oppose it, including dozens of Illinois law enforcement leaders who argued the ban is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Those in support of the ban argue that high-powered weapons have no place in civilized society and prohibiting them from legal public use could stem further mass violence.

DeKalb High School freshman Gracie Sasso-Cleveland, 15, found dead; 29-year-old sex offender charged with murder

May brought with it the brutal slaying of DeKalb teenager Gracie Sasso-Cleveland, who had gone missing and, days later, was found dead, her body discarded in a dumpster near a DeKalb home.

Timothy Doll, 29, a registered sex offender at the time of the girl’s death, resided at the home, and that day was charged with first-degree murder.

Loved ones remembered the girl as kind, a member of DeKalb High School’s orchestra who taught herself how to play the piano, a video game player and an artist who loved animals.

Doll – who prosecutors allege engaged in an inappropriate and illegal relationship with the teenager half his age for months – is accused of suffocating Sasso-Cleveland with a pillow for three minutes before putting her body in a laundry basket and discarding it in a nearby dumpster, according to court records.

Doll then allegedly called paramedics for help after he injured his back lifting the girl’s body, according to court records.

Sasso-Cleveland’s mother, Ericka Sasso, reported her missing May 6. The slain teenager was found by DeKalb police May 7.

Doll has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges in the case despite county court records alleging that he confessed to the slaying to police. Doll could face 20 to 120 years in prison.

The case is expected to go to trial under a newly appointed judge after Doll successfully appealed to switch from Circuit Court Judge Marcy Buick.

Buick sentenced him less than a month before Sasso-Cleveland’s death to 2½ years in prison and 30 months of probation after he pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a minor and attempted child pornography of a different girl in an unrelated 2020 case.

Sasso-Cleveland’s loved ones, friends and family members have called for stricter sentences for those convicted of sex crimes, arguing that if Doll had received a harsher prison sentence for his 2020 crime, he still would have been in jail instead of with Sasso-Cleveland.

Doll is due back in court at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 17 as prosecutors await results from a fingerprint test.

Kraft Heinz distribution facility coming to DeKalb by 2025

In the latest in what appears to be a years-long trend of substantial economic development on DeKalb’s south side, food manufacturer Kraft Heinz announced plans in July to build a 775,000-square-foot distribution facility at Gurler and Peace roads.

It’s a $400 million investment meant to bring with it more than 150 jobs once complete, the company said.

The global corporation previously was operating under a codename – Project Supernova, which then switched to Project Wild Cat – as it sought development agreements with the city of DeKalb to set up shop.

The facility is expected to open in 2025.

Plane crashes in Cortland en route to DeKalb airport from Indiana, injuring two

Two men were injured in a small-plane crash about midday July 27 in Cortland, as a single-engine Cessna 177 made its way from Indiana to DeKalb, authorities said.

The men – a pilot and a passenger – suffered injuries in the crash that was reported about 12:30 p.m. in a privately owned cornfield behind Cortland well drilling business HI Stones & Sons Inc., 260 W. Lincoln Highway.

DeKalb County-area first responders remained at the crash site for hours amid sweltering heat and an ongoing heat advisory as temperatures surged past 90 degrees with a heat index of more than 100 degrees.

DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jim Burgh said the Cessna 177 plane was registered out of Evansville, Indiana, and was heading to the DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport, about 1 mile from the crash site.

Sycamore teenager stabbed to death, community mourns

Sycamore High School student Kaleb McCall, 17, was stabbed to death Sept. 7 blocks from downtown Sycamore.

Prosecutors allege that his fellow classmate, a 15-year-old Sycamore High School student who authorities have not identified, wielded the weapon that killed the teen.

The teen is charged with multiple counts of murder, aggravated battery and armed violence, the DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s Office said.

Sycamore police officers were called to the area of Elm and Somonauk streets at 6:10 p.m. Sept. 7. The initial 911 call came in as a fight and then a reported stabbing, Sycamore Police Chief Jim Winters told the Daily Chronicle at the time.

When police arrived, they found the 17-year-old had suffered serious stab wounds. Authorities immediately rendered first aid to the boy, Winters said.

He was taken by Sycamore paramedics to Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb, where he later was pronounced dead.

Winters said police believe the stabbing was an isolated incident that was prompted by a confrontation that occurred before the violent act involving multiple teenagers.

Community members and loved ones mourned McCall, who they remembered as kind, funny and hardworking.

His grandmother worked with him at the Sycamore Culver’s, which held a fundraiser in November for the grieving family.

$8.3M sale of DeKalb County nursing center fails, county government sues would-be buyers

Buyers under contract to purchase the DeKalb County Rehabilitation and Nursing Center for $8.3 million told county officials in late September that they wanted to back out of a sale that took 14 months to broker, according to documents released to the Daily Chronicle on Oct. 3.

The sale was determined to have failed as of Oct. 20, county officials said.

Now, officials must grapple with how to fund the struggling facility, 2600 N. Annie Glidden Road, DeKalb, for another year under county government ownership.

DeKalb County filed a lawsuit Nov. 9 against the would-be buyers of the nursing center, seeking to recover more than $8.3 million in damages, according to court documents.

The lawsuit alleges that the buyers’ failure to see the sale through has caused “substantial financial losses” to the county, which said it was “defrauded and manipulated.”

Chief Judge Bradley Waller is expected to hear arguments in the case at 9 a.m. Feb. 1 at the DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore.

In July 2022, the DeKalb County Board voted to sell the DeKalb County Rehab and Nursing Center, 2600 N. Annie Glidden Road, DeKalb, to Illuminate HC for $8.3 million.

At the time, officials said a sale was needed because of the county’s inability to keep the facility financially viable after years of alleged mismanagement, delinquent billing and falling resident numbers created $7 million worth of county debt.

An Earlville home explodes in southern DeKalb County, injuring one

A home smoldered on the ground, and one person was hospitalized with injuries that weren’t life-threatening after a house explosion in southern DeKalb County on Oct. 17, according to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office.

DeKalb County Sheriff Andy Sullivan said his office began receiving calls of a house explosion at 1:39 p.m. that Tuesday.

A single-family home on Goble Road in Earlville was found to have been leveled. DeKalb County Chief Deputy Sheriff Jim Burgh said the explosion threw debris into treetops and on top of a shed, while some pieces of the home landed about 50 yards away on Goble Road.

Retired Sycamore cop saves choking child at Pumpkin Fest

A retired Sycamore police officer saved a young girl’s life during the Sycamore Pumpkin Festival on Oct. 25.

The story of a life saved at the cake-cutting ceremony during the start of Sycamore’s fabled festival took social media by storm Oct. 26, after witness Mike DeVito posted about the ordeal on Facebook.

Cary Singer, a retired deputy chief at the Sycamore Police Department, humbly shied away from the spotlight but told the Daily Chronicle that the bedlam of a panicking family brought him to action.

After gaining permission from the mother to help her child, Singer said he began performing a child Heimlich maneuver, and an object – possibly a hot dog – popped out of the child’s mouth, opening the child’s airway.

In response to Singer’s heroics, mom Michelle Bloyd told the Daily Chronicle that she was grateful for the chance to thank the man who saved her 3-year-old daughter Aamyah.

DeKalb County opens its first recreational marijuana dispensary

The county’s first recreational marijuana dispensary opened Black Friday, one day after Thanksgiving and in time for the holiday shopping season.

Excelleaf, 305 E. Locust St., downtown DeKalb, had its grand opening Dec. 1.

The dispensary is primarily women-owned and also is the first store to open for Canndid Spirit Too LLC, the company that operates Excelleaf.

Excelleaf is occupying a building in the city’s downtown that once was used for a credit union.

According to its website, Excelleaf offers several marijuana products for patrons to choose from, including edibles, topicals, vapes, pre-rolls and concentrates.

Sycamore overtaxed residents $120K, according to Daily Chronicle tax records review

The city of Sycamore overtaxed its residents by almost $120,000 on their 2022 city property tax bills, taxing them at a higher rate than what the City Council approved, a Daily Chronicle review of tax records found.

City officials in November said Sycamore residents were overtaxed an average of about $10 to $20, and the amount is likely more for some business owners.

In a statement released Nov. 14 after the Chronicle began asking about its findings, city officials acknowledged the overtaxation and blamed it on a “clerical error.”

The Daily Chronicle review, through public records requests, revealed that the city levied property taxes at a higher rate – 0.7% instead of the approved 0.68% rate – for 2022 property tax bills, paid in 2023.

Instead of bringing in the expected additional revenue of $600,000, the city brought in $719,991, about $120,000 more than elected officials approved, according to DeKalb County documents.

The Sycamore City Council in December approved a plan to send rebate checks to property owners. Sycamore City Manager Michael Hall has said the rebate checks will be sent out no later than Aug. 1.