After 11 months, the Illinois State Police crime lab has notified Riverside police that a fingerprint lifted from a car involved in a carjacking last December matches that of a man currently in state prison.
On Nov. 17, Detective Sgt. David Krull will be traveling to the Big Muddy River Correction Center in southern Illinois to interview a 27-year-old Chicago man whose fingerprint was reportedly lifted from a Mercury Grand Marquis reported stolen in Chicago on Dec. 28.
That same vehicle, according to police, was used in a Dec. 29, 2008 carjacking in Riverside at First and Forest avenues. An hour later, Downers Grove police reported that the carjacking victim’s car was involved in an accident there and that the Mercury was found at a gas station nearby.
A pickup truck was reported stolen from the gas station at Ogden Avenue and Main Street in Downers Grove where the Mercury was dumped. On Jan. 1, Chicago police arrested a man in possession of the stolen pickup truck.
That suspect, Raymond Velez, was convicted in July of possession of a stolen motor vehicle, but investigators have been waiting for state police to return the results of the fingerprint analysis before trying to connect him directly to the Riverside carjacking.
-Bob Uphues
