Brian Dugan A60862
Pontiac Correctional Center
700 West Lincoln Street
P.O. Box 99
Pontiac, Il 61764
Convicted murderer Brian Dugan was indicted Tuesday for the 1983 abduction, rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico of Naperville. The 15-count indictment against Dugan, 49, is the latest development in a 22-year-old case that put Illinois' capital punishment system under a national spotlight after two men who were convicted of the crime and sent to death row were freed years later. "This is the result of a full and open minded investigation of the facts and circumstances of this case," Birkett said at a press conference to announce the indictment.
Nicarico was home alone from school recovering from the flu on Feb. 25, 1983, when she was abducted, leaving no sign but fingernail scratches on the wall near the kicked-in front door. Birkett said Tuesday that Dugan raped and bludgeoned the girl to death. Her body was later found in a nature preserve. Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez were convicted of the crime and condemned to death in 1985, but appeals courts over the following decade twice reversed the convictions.
Cruz was acquitted during a third trial in 1995 after spending almost a decade on death row, and prosecutors later dropped the charges against Hernandez.
