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George Nellessen, 55, was found beaten and stabbed to death inside his Arlington Heights home in April 2011, his body bound to a chair after he failed to show up for work. His 19-year-old son, Matthew Nellessen, was later convicted of orchestrating the killing to get at his father's money.

The death came to light on the morning of April 14, 2011, when relatives who had grown worried went to the house in the 1000 block of North Wilshire Lane and called 911. According to an account of the recording, the caller told the dispatcher the victim was "in the basement tied to a chair and not moving" and identified a nephew, Matthew Nellessen, as a suspect.

Prosecutors said Matthew Nellessen recruited three other men to rob his father two days earlier, on April 12. The group forced George Nellessen to write a $100,000 check and hand over his online banking and ATM passwords, according to Cook County prosecutors, then bound him to a chair, struck him in the head with a baseball bat and stabbed him in the neck with a kitchen knife.

When someone arrived at the home to check on the victim, Matthew Nellessen was asked how his father was doing and replied, "You'll know when you see him," prosecutors said. He then left and led police on a chase that ended with his arrest in East Dundee.

A Cook County jury found Matthew Nellessen guilty of first-degree murder on March 19, 2014. At a hearing that June, Judge Martin Agran sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, saying he did not believe the defendant could be rehabilitated.

The three co-defendants were charged in connection with the robbery. Armon Braden pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 22 years, and Marlon Green pleaded guilty to armed robbery and received the same term, according to court records. Charges against a fourth defendant, Azari Braden, were dropped.

Matthew Nellessen's attorneys later argued that the life term was excessive given his age and lack of a violent record. An Illinois appellate court rejected that claim on September 28, 2016, and upheld the sentence.