Several high-profile cases in Lee, Whiteside counties resolved in 2022

Several cases involving murder and attempted murder, as well as a DUI-related death, came to a resolution in 2022 in Lee and Whiteside counties.

Helm sentencing on March 9 wraps up Schroeder murder case

MORRISON – Rachel Helm, 20, who helped her then-girlfriend Anna Schroeder try to clean up and hide the July 6, 2017 murder of Schroeder’s mother, was sentenced March 9 to 11½ years in prison.

Calling her crimes “despicable,” “disgusting,” “disrespectful” and “callous,” Judge Trish Senneff sentenced Helm to six and a half years in prison for arson and five years for concealment of a homicidal death in the July 6, 2017, murder of Peggy Schroeder, who was shot between the eyes by her daughter.

The sentences were recommended as part of her plea agreement. The concealment charge is six months shy of the maximum she could have received; five years for arson is the maximum, and by statute the sentences must be served consecutively.

Helm also was given credit for 1,705 days served in the Mary Davis juvenile detention center for girls in Galesburg, and in the Whiteside County jail. That’s about four years and eight months, which will come off the first sentence.

With day-for-day time, she could be free in a little more than three years if she earns other credits allowed for time spent in Illinois Department of Corrections educational, vocational, treatment or other programs.

On Nov. 5, Senneff sentenced Schroeder to the maximum 20 years for second-degree murder. She was given credit for four years, four months served and also is eligible for day-to-day and other IDOC credits.

The girls, 15 at the time, were convinced Peggy would not approve of their same-sex relationship. The girls had for two weeks been texting each other messages about ways to kill Peggy, and in the end, Anna told her 53-year-old mother she had a surprise for her, had her cover her face with a towel then shot her with her own gun.

Schroeder texted a picture of her mom’s body to Helm to prove she had killed her, and after Helm was dropped off later that day, the girls spent two days and nights trying to clean the blood out of the carpet.

They moved the body into her bedroom and covered it with a sheet, went shopping for food, cleaning supplies and hair dye, dyed their hair then decided to run away.

Before they left, Rachel set the sheet covering Peggy’s body on fire and also one in Anna’s room.

They hid the gun in a nearby cemetery, and instead of leaving town, Schroeder got a ride a ride to her father’s home in Walnut and Helm to her home in Rock Falls, where she told her mother what happened. Schroeder was arrested later that night.

Rock Falls woman sentenced in murder of her best friend

MORRISON – On Aug. 5, after two and a half days of testimony, it took a Whiteside County jury only two hours to convict a Rock Falls woman of first-degree murder in the death of her self-described best friend.

Nichole Elsesser was to be sentenced Oct. 28 for stabbing well-known area boxer Tracy Russell to death Dec. 15, 2019, at a home along the river in rural Rock Falls, where they got into an argument that turned physical.

On Aug. 17, however, Elsesser’s attorney, Michael Jarrad of the Jarrad Law Group of Chicago, filed a motion asking the Judge Trish Senneff either to acquit her of the crime or provide her a new trial.

Senneff will hear arguments on the motion on Feb. 1, and if the motion is denied, may sentence Elsesser at that time.

According to investigators and court testimony, Russell, 53, of Rock Falls punched Elsesser several times in the back of the head, and the 5-foot-5, 135-pound Elsesser stabbed Russell four times with a steak knife, first in his back shoulder, then, as he swung at her, in his abdomen below his rib cage, in his right upper arm and his left thigh, investigators said.

The wound to his thigh proved to be fatal. Russell bled to death on the porch at the home in the 22000 block of Brooks Road as other people at the house that day, including his attacker, drove away. When they returned an hour later, Russell was dead.

Elsesser told investigators that she and Russell were “best friends” and that she thought she had stabbed him with a pencil.

Elsesser, 47, who had been in the Whiteside County Jail on $1 million bond since her arrest, was ordered held without bond until sentencing. She faces 30 to 60 years up to life in prison.

Russell was a former professional boxer and a member of the legendary Jon Russell boxing family of Rock Falls.

Dixon school shooter sentenced Oct. 4 to 30 years

DIXON – Matthew Milby Jr. was sentenced Oct. 4 to 30 years in prison for bringing an Uzi to Dixon High School’s graduation practice and shooting at a teacher and the school resource officer on May 16, 2018.

Milby, 23, who pleaded guilty July 14 to two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, was sentenced to 30 years on each count, terms to be served concurrently.

The 23-year-old must serve at least 25 years, six months before being eligible for parole. That will make him at least 45 years old when he is freed.

“I can’t undo what I did, but I can take responsibility for my actions and apologize,” Milby told Judge John C. Redington, after listening to several victim impact accounts, including one from then-school resource officer Mark Dallas and teacher Andrew McKay, whom he shot at.

“I hope that this statement brings some peace to those who were affected by my actions.”

He also was given credit for 1,601 days served in Lee County jail since his arrest that day nearly four and a half years ago.

Milby was found not fit to stand trial three times since his arrest for refusing to eat properly and take his medication while in jail, most recently at a hearing in May 2021.

Morrison man sentenced Oct. 28 in attempted double murder

MORRISON – On the eve of his trial for attempted murder, a Morrison man who shot two people in 2019 pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to 21 years and nine months in prison.

Jeramie M. House, 27, was sentenced on each of two counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, which will be served concurrently. He must serve 85% of the sentence – more than 18 years – before being eligible for parole.

After that term is up, he must serve three more years on an Oct. 19 charge of aggravated battery of a peace officer for punching a jail worker in the head, Judge Trish Senneff ruled.

Two counts of attempted murder, two of aggravated battery with a firearm, two of aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of possession of a gun while his firearm owner’s identification card was revoked, as well as two more counts of aggravated battery of a peace officer – one from Oct. 19 and one from a 2020 case – were dismissed as part of his plea agreement.

House also was given credit for the three years he’s served in the Whiteside County jail since his arrest Oct. 23, 2019.

On Oct. 22, 2019, House was in the back seat of a car that pulled up to the curb at 507 W. Main St. shortly before 8:30 p.m.

Investigators said front-seat passenger Jodie M. Knight called an 18-year-old man to let him know she was there.

The man came out of the house and walked toward the car; as he approached, House shot him in the head, abdomen and leg, critically injuring him.

A then-24-year-old woman who was behind him was struck twice in the leg.

The 18-year-old told police that he and Knight had agreed to hang out that night.

Another woman, Courtney Queckborner, was driving the car, investigators said.

Both women cooperated by going to police, reporting what had happened and leading investigators to the gun that was used, while also telling them House had fled to his parents’ home in rural Morrison. He was arrested there without incident.

Knight, 21, a Chadwick native now of Clinton, Iowa, and Queckborner, 22, of Milledgeville were charged Oct. 7 with the same charges as House.

At her preliminary hearing Dec. 5, the court ruled there was not enough probable cause to charge Knight and she was discharged.

Queckborner pleaded not guilty on Nov. 14 and has a pretrial hearing Jan. 25.

She faces six to 30 years in prison, with a possible 20-year enhancement, for attempted murder, and if convicted of any of the charges, must serve 85% of the sentence.

She is free on a $100,000 recognizance bond.

Milledgeville man to be sentenced March 10 in DUI-related death

MORRISON – A Milledgeville man whose blood alcohol content was nearly three times the legal limit when he hit a car ion Aug. 19, 2017, causing the death of the driver three days later, pleaded guilty Nov. 30 to aggravated DUI resulting in death.

Douglas M. Strehlow, 46, will be sentenced March 10 in Whiteside County Court. He faces three to seven years in prison.

Per a plea agreement, a second count of the same charge was dismissed.

Strehlow was southbound on state Route 40 in Sterling, just north of Fulfs Road, at about 2:40 a.m. that Aug. 19 when his pickup crossed the center line and collided nearly head-on with a passenger car driven by Summer D. Harmon, 40, of Sterling, who was delivering newspapers for Sauk Valley Media.

Harmon, a 1995 Rock Falls High School graduate who worked as motor route carrier for SVM for more than 20 years, died Aug. 22, 2017, in a Wisconsin hospital of blunt force trauma.