DCFS wants to examine murder defendant’s daughter, but family says no
The state’s child-welfare agency is seeking to examine the daughter of a woman accused in a grisly double murder in Joliet but the family is not cooperating with the agency, according to a source familiar with the case.
A lawyer for the Department of Children and Family Services last week asked a Will County judge for an order allowing the department to perform a well-being check of Bethany McKee’s 18-month old daughter and inspect the home where she lives, according to the source. But the agency’s bid failed, and it has to repetition the court.
Bethany McKee is one of four people charged in the gruesome January stranglings of Eric Glover and Terrance Rankins in Joliet. Also charged in the murders are Joshua Miner, Adam Landerman and Alisa Massaro.
McKee’s daughter lives with her grandparents, Teresa and Bill McKee.
DCFS’ investigation was promoted by two calls to the abuse and neglect reporting hotline, the source said.
An agency spokesman, citing state law, said he was not able to comment.
Bill McKee pleaded guilty in November 1995 to one count of aggra- vated criminal sexual abuse. He admitted to a Will County judge that he fondled a girl under the age of 13. He told a reporter Friday he was innocent of those charges and agreed to a plea deal because he followed bad legal advice.
Through the years, the McKee family has been investigated by DCFS multiple times because at one point Bill McKee’s was a registered sex offender, the family said.
Every time DCFS has investigated their family, the allegations of abuse have been unfounded, Teresa McKee said.
And that’s why the McKees say they are fighting DCFS’s request to examine their granddaughter.
“This is ridiculous,” she said. “We’ve had it happen so many times. How many times do we have to be bullied and harassed?”
The child came to be in the custody of her grandparents after Bethany McKee was arrested in Kankakee with her daughter in tow after fleeing Joliet.