McDonough County Sheriff Nick Petitgout has released more information about the investigation into the murder of Cheyenna Decker of Colchester early this year.
“You’re talking about an absolute whodunit homicide. Those are extremely hard, and in our area just don’t happen very often,” said Petitgout during a briefing Tuesday morning at Macomb city hall.
He said personnel from the sheriff’s department, the Macomb police department, and Illinois State Police spent “thousands upon thousands man hours” investigating the case over a five-month period.
Macomb Police Chief Jeff Hamer concurred, saying his department’s training room was filled with investigators for hours, days, weeks, and months on end as they worked to solve the case.
“Cheyenna mattered to all of them. They didn’t want to give up,” Hamer said.
The chief praised the teamwork used to solve the case.
Petitgout said stalking was the motive for the murder of Decker, 23, whose body was found in the bedroom of her apartment at 496 N. Coal St. on the afternoon of Jan. 21. She had been shot once in the head.
A suspect in the case, Eric M. Warren-Spears, 35, took his own life on May 24 after contacting the county’s emergency dispatch center, saying he was suicidal. His body was found in his apartment in the same complex that Decker lived in.
Petitgout said Warren-Spears’ residence at 592 N. Coal St., Apt D, overlooked the entire apartment complex.
“He was able to see everyone come and go inside that complex,” Petitgout said. “There was definitely a position of advantage of his apartment.”
The investigation
Petitgout said investigators interviewed everyone residing at the apartment complex, including Warren-Spears, multiple times as part of their fact-finding into the case.
They also asked each of them for a DNA sample. Only Warren-Spears declined to provide a sample.
Petitgout said investigators also learned that Warren-Spears was the only person in the complex who owned a firearm.
The sheriff said in addition to the interviews, investigators spent weeks analyzing cell phone data.
“We were able to discover that Eric Warren-Spears started to research Cheyenna the night before he killed her,” Petitgout said. “He was looking to figure out the name of the girl that lived in that apartment.”
He said Warren-Spears also looked up information about where Decker worked.
Investigators then served a search warrant for Warren-Spears’ cell phone, which the suspect turned over to authorities. Analysis of phone data revealed Warren-Spears knew Decker’s death was a homicide hours before the sheriff’s department released that information, and that he knew what caliber of round was used in the shooting.
“He knew certain aspects of the investigation that only someone who killed her would know,” Petitgout said.
Cell phone evidence
Petitgout said investigators discovered that Decker did not use her phone after 9:15 a.m. on Jan. 21, and that there was “unusual activity” on her phone right before that time.
“What I would describe it as is a series of apps that were opened and then closed very rapidly,” the sheriff said.
He said it appeared Decker was trying to do something quickly before she was shot. She did not attempt to make a phone call.
Meanwhile, Warren-Spears was active on his phone shortly after the murder.
“Within less than an hour after Cheyenna was killed, Eric Warren-Spears factory reset his phone. Completely turned his phone off and reset it,” Petitgout said.
“Within hours after killing Cheyenna, Eric Warren-Spears researched how and where to get his car fixed in the area, and he researched flights to Puerto Rico.”
He said investigators were “moving in on him with a series of search warrants” when Spears took his own life.
Pebbles in a pile
Petitgout said when Warren-Spears called dispatchers on May 24, he told them, “It’s over with. I’m sorry.”
That statement, along with the information uncovered during the investigation, have the sheriff confident that Warren-Spears is guilty of the murder.
“I am here today to tell you that I am 99% certain that Eric Warren-Spears killed Cheyenna Decker,” Petitgout said.
But he said the case will remain open because investigators did not get to interview Warren-Spears as a suspect, confront him with evidence, and measure his responses.
The sheriff said no single piece of evidence pointed to Warren-Spears.
“One of the things I learned from the people that taught me how to solve crime was pebbles in a pile. Does one of those things mean a whole lot? No. But when you start putting those pebbles in a pile, you start to get a very big pile,” Petitgout said.
He said that pile included the information that Warren-Spears was aware of that no one except the murderer would have known.
Petitgout said as a result of the crime-solving efforts of various law enforcement agencies involved with the case, he will try to put together a regional homicide task force.
He said it would be similar to a task force already in place in the region to investigate drug-related crimes.
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