Mystery In Illinois

Paris Illinois is a small community, set off the beaten path, of about 9000 people. It is the kind of place where everyone went to the same bars and the people there lived their lives simply and quietly. Mike and Karen Rhodes were a newlywed couple who were very much in love and decided to set up house in Paris. But in the summer of 1986 the couple was brutally stabbed to death and their house set on fire. The town was shocked that something like that could happen there. There was no physical evidence since the crime scene was destroyed by fire. The police didn't have anything for months and then these two witnesses came forward who had been in the home that night and said they could identify who had stabbed Mike and Karen Rhodes. One was the town drunk and the other was a drug addict. And although two were eventually tried and convicted and one sent to prison for life and the other sent to death row, these murder would eventually become one of Illinois most enduring mysteries.

The problem was that the prosecutor's story and they way they presented the case didn't make any sense to anyone. David Protest is a professor of Journalism at Northwestern University. David has made quite a name for himself by getting the wrongfully convicted out of Jail. In the fall of 1999 four of his Journalism students took on the case of the Rhodes murders and quickly found large holes in the prosecutor's case. First there was no physical evidence to link these two men to the crime and second there was absolutely no reason for either of the men to kill the Rhodes family. Coincidentally, after David's students investigated the case he got a call from Mike Callahan of the Illinois State police. He said that he had tried to open the Rhodes case five times and five times he was told by his superiors that it was too politically sensitive.

Pictures from the wedding of Mike and Karen Rhodes looked like most from the '80s with dated outfits but a wonderful joyous young couple. They were ready, they both thought, for a joyous life together in the small town of Paris Illinois. Mike's Brother Tony and Sister Andrea agree, these two were really kindred spirits. Karen Spethard was 24 when she married and had a job as an office assistant. Mike was working in landscaping. Nowhere in those pictures was there any hint that their lives would come to a sudden and violent end in less than four months. In the early morning hours of July 6th 1986, a fire engulfed their home. By 2:00 PM that afternoon the news that Mike and Karen had been brutally stabbed to death in their own home. Justice moved swiftly in the small town of Paris as two men were arrested and convicted of the crime.

41 year old Herb Whitlock a part time construction worker and small time drug dealer and his pal 35 year old Randy Sidle who also worked construction and had several convictions for assault. The motive, Prosecutors said was a drug deal gone bad. Both men said they were innocent but of course no one was listening. No one until 1999 when journalism professor gave his students the Rhodes murder as a class project. Re investigate it he told them because to him at least, it just didn't add up. Professor David Protest has led students on that journey before. So far his students have found evidence that has helped free 11 innocent men. The job of finding the truth about the Rhodes case fell to Cristian Searer, 20 back then, and to Diane Hague, Greg Johnson, and Crystal Larsen. Their Professor admitted to having qualms about this case. For the next nine months the students would spend most weekends on the road making the 180 mile trip from Chicago to the small town of Paris.

They would plow through police reports and court records to track down new leads and talk to old witnesses wherever they could find them. It came to pass that they felt they had known Mike and Karen Rhodes. Over and over again the students recreated the crime scene in their minds eye. Going back to that fourth of July holiday weekend Mike and Karen were sleeping in their bed and the people came in and they attacked Mike first by stabbing him in the back. Karen had time to wake up and grab her glasses off of the nightstand then she was stabbed mostly in the chest. There was blood all over the room, on their clothes, and in the bed. Blood everywhere but on the suspects. The young couple was stabbed over 50 times and the two suspects would have been covered in blood yet they had not a drop on them or their clothes. Nor were there any hair or fiber on there clothes or in their car from the crime scene. Remarkably Professor Protest's skepticism is shared by Mike's own family.

Their doubt is based on both the lack of evidence and on that supposed motive. Mike never took drugs in his life, save an occasional joint of pot, and Karen had never even done that, yet the prosecutor swears to this day that the motive was a drug deal gone bad. And as But Mike had met with Whitlock a half of dozen times according to the testimony of a friend who had bought cocaine from Whitlock. And as Mike's Brother Tony points out there is a big difference between a guy who smokes pot and someone who gets involved with a cocaine dealer. The students also seem leery of the drug theory but finding holes in this case isn't as easy as it first seems. That's because two people said they had been there that night who were eyewitnesses and one had an incredible story. Back in 1999 the four Northwestern college students lived a dream assignment. They got to stay out late, hit the bars, and chugging beer and all with the blessing of their Professor.

Becoming part of Paris Illinois may be key in understanding who killed Mike and Karen Rhodes and determining whether the men convicted really are guilty. Weekend after weekend the students struggled with their investigation. Michael McPatrich had prosecuted the Rhodes case and was doubtful that the students would come up with anything new that would convince him that the two men in prison were not the right men. But in 1986 the young prosecutor had had a tough time building a case against Whitlock and Sidle. The students quickly learned that the investigation Mike and Karen Rhodes had gone absolutely nowhere for two months until, amazingly, an eyewitness stepped forward with an incredible story. He claimed he had actually seen Whitlock and Sidle at the scene of the crime. Daryl Harrington was his name and he was the town drunk. Harrington uses an artificial larynx. In a taped statement to police Harrington said he woke up in Randy Sidle's car outside the home of Mike and Karen Rhodes.

After using his credit card to jimmy open the lock Harrington said he went inside where Sidle confronted him. He also said that Sidle had blood on him and a knife with him. He then said he looked up and saw a body on the bed. Town drunk Harrington was key to the investigation. But without a confession McPatrich was stuck. Five months later all that changed when, incredibly a second eyewitness came forward with much needed corroborating evidence. Debra Rinhold, a self admitted drug addict and alcoholic had told police she had not only seen it all but that she had provided a five inch knife and had even helped with the killing. By the time the students had began their investigation, Debra Rinhold claimed she was clean and sober but in 1986 she was anything but. She claims that the murder weapon was her husband's knife and that she actually held Karen down while Sidle stabbed her. The Paris police were duly impressed, especially when she accurately described a broken lamp in the bedroom.

Two separate Juries believed the eyewitness accounts and in 1987 the two men were convicted despite their unwavering protests of innocence . Randy Sidle got the death penalty and Herb Whitlock got life without parole. Although the prosecutor did recommend no jail time for the two eyewitnesses Debra Rinhold did serve two years in prison for concealing a homicide. Daryl Harrington was never charged. But months into their investigation found new evidence. Evidence that cast serious doubt on the testimony of State's two star witnesses. The bedroom where Mike and Karen were killed was a gruesome scene. But there was no forensic evidence at all that connected the accused of the murders. First off the students doubted Daryl Harrington's story which put the murders shortly after midnight. They tracked down witnesses who challenged that timeline. One who had been a neighbor of the Rhodes. The professor contend that the crime occurred much later in the night then when the witnesses said it did.

And there is one other thing that didn't add up. They both are standing with Randy Sidle outside the house after the murder and they both see randy Sidle, but remarkably they don't see each other. McPatrich may not find this odd but his star witness Debra Rinhold sure did. In 1996, nine years after the conviction, in a sworn statement to Randy Sidle's attorney she had signed a sworn statement that she had lied when she was on the stand. As for those impressive details she had provided about what she had seen inside the house, well over the years Debra Rinhold has changed her story more than half a dozen times. Bill Clutter and investigator working on the Randy Sidle case says he has proof that Debra Rinhold never saw the murders at all. Rinhold testified that the lamp was broken that the lamp was broken when she got to the Rhode's bedroom. However if the lamp had been broken after the fire started the inside of the lamp would have been covered with soot as everything else was.

Instead the inside of the lamp was a perfect shade of white which means the lamp had to have been broken sometime after the murders occurred. In the same sworn statement that she denied being at the crime scene she said the police fed her the information about the lamp. For the students it all added up to more than a reasonable doubt. Especially when they started turning up other witnesses the police had never talked to. One of them pointed them to an entirely new direction. A woman said she saw two men in trench coats standing under a streetlight the night before the murders. She said one of them was a big guy with blond hair and the other was a smaller guy with dark hair. And she thinks she saw the same two men the next night, the night of the murders. She said the men were driving a large white car with a stripe around it and had Florida license plates on it. She said she saw the car drive around the Rhode's house about ten times.

Across town the students also tracked down a gas station attendant who said he sold 21 gallons of extra gas in seven three gallon gas cans to a man driving a white car with Florida plates. An hour later the Rhode's house was ablaze. Paris police have interviewed the gas station attendant but the Florida connection went nowhere. The police never even knew about the other witness who over the years hasn't exactly volunteered information. But what would their motive be? The students came up with a new theory, one that focused on Karen not on Mike. Karen had told several family members that she had seen something at work that had scared her. Something she had stumbled on in the parking lot of the pet food company where she worked. An incident involving other people from the factory. According to a friend of Karens' that the students interviewed she was very worried after seeing a large sum of money and some guns being loaded into the trunk of a car that was headed for Chicago.

Professor Protest wondered if there could be some link between what she had seen in the parking lot and the shadowy men from Florida. A former Paris Detective says he has many of the answers the students are looking for and he says those answers may have cost him his career. The Northwestern students didn't know it at the time but a seasoned investigator with the Illinois State police force also believed that the two men in prison were innocent. Michael Callahan's career with the Illinois State police spanned nearly 2 1/2 decades. He was promoted three times over the years. In the year 2000 he made Lieutenant and was asked to review the Rhode's murder investigation. In his opinion it is by far the worst investigation he has ever seen. The biggest question raised by Callahan is the same as the students have raised, what was the motive for the murders? Like the students Callahan as drawn to what Karen may have stumbled onto at work.

Not only were there large sums of money that seemed out of place but also a machine gun. Callahan began to wonder if maybe someone at the plant where Karen worked might know something about the murder. Karen had told her that she had seen something at work that made her afraid enough that she was thinking about quitting her job. But in order to find out what the connection was to Karen's work that would take a new investigation and when Callahan approached his superiors about doing just that he got the rug pulled right out from under him. He was told that the case was too politically sensitive to reopen and no one ever told him what that meant. Why Callahan's attempts to reopen the case was blocked was never made clear but in 2003 he was transferred out of investigations and that ended his pursuit of the Rhodes murder case for good. But he refused to give up. Instead he sued the Illinois State police claiming he was transferred to shut him up.

Not only about his pursuit of the Rhode's murder investigation but also about his complaints to internal affairs about inappropriate conduct of some of his peers. Callahan's case went to federal court. He argued that his superiors muzzled him and violated his right to free speech. Callahan, now retired found his own vindication. In 2005 he was awarded $360,000. But fortunes are about to change. The Northwestern students graduated in 2000 with some unfinished business. The students started new jobs in journalism. Greg at the St. Louis Post Dispatch and Diane a reporter in Shreveport Louisiana. Then five years after they had started the Rhode's investigation came the story they all had so desperately wanted to write. In a remarkable reversal a Federal Judge ruled that Randy Sidle original made a big mistake in not challenging the credibility of those two eyewitnesses. A mistake that could have affected the verdict. In his case, 18 years after his conviction all charges were dropped.

Randy Sidle, once on death row was a free man. In the crowd of well wishers in the crowd the day of his release were two of the Northwestern students. But someone was missing. And that someone was Herb Whitlock. While Sidle's case was heard by a Federal Judge, Whitlock's has stayed in the state system where his appeals have been repeatedly heard and repeatedly denied. After Sidle's success, Herb Whitlock tried again trying to get a State Judge to overturn his conviction base on the same flimsy evidence an inadequate legal counsel. However, the State court Judge gave Whitlock a stunning blow ruling that his lawyer did an adequate job and that the eyewitnesses, on the issues that mattered could be believed. Professor Protest believes this to be a travesty of justice where one man is free and one still languishes in prison when they were both convicted on the same evidence. Randy Stidle says he hopes that somehow Herb Whitlock will somehow eventually be free.

Meanwhile Sidle struggles to re establish his life. He has a new job at a local factory and tries hard to somehow to fit in. While Sidle tries to adjust to his new life, Whitlock files yet another appeal based both ineffective counsel and also on a new claim that the prosecution withheld evidence. This time the appeals court sees it his way and finally on January 8, 2008, Whitlock gets the news he has been waiting so long to hear. His conviction is overturned and he too is a free man. Whitlock credits his attorney Richard Kling. For the first time in over two decades, Herb Whitlock turns his back on prison and is able to hold the hand of his daughter. A few days later he returns to a place he once called home. The family farm has become rundown but it is still a welcome sight to Herb. But Whitlock is eager to get to work determined to make up for lost time.

But for the Rhode's family who were skeptical of the investigation all along, Just will only come when they know what happened on that hot July night in Paris Illinois. They investigation into the murders of the Rhodes couple has been reopened. Prosecutors say Herb Whitlock and Randy Sidle remain suspects and could be tried for the murders again.