St. Charles resident Liz Suwanski fulfilled her dream by winning The Food Network’s “Halloween Cookie Challenge,” which aired last night on The Food Network. “I never could have imagined when I started making decorated sugar cookies so many years ago that I would end up making cookies on TV!” she wrote on her Facebook page. Suwanski will be be the featured guest on the Justa Coupla Guys podcast airing November 10.
An Aurora man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman in August of 2020. Rene Cano-Rodriguez, 32, was convicted of criminal sexual assault, Class 1 felony, after a bench trial conducted by Judge David P. Kliment. Cano-Rodriguez waived his right to a jury trial. According to prosecutors, during the evening of August 22, 2020, Cano-Rodriguez and the victim were attending a party at a residence in Aurora. Cano-Rodriguez gave the victim multiple shots of tequila to drink and was aware that she was highly intoxicated. Cano-Rodriguez helped to walk the victim to her bedroom and then sexually…
A bicyclist described by St. Charles police as “elderly” remains in critical condition after being hit by a car Saturday evening. According to the St. Charles Police Department, at 6:42PM on Saturday the elderly person was struck while riding their bicycle on Bricher Road. The bicyclist remains in hospital in critical condition at this time. The offending driver fled the area, but left behind a passenger side mirror and passenger side reflector. The vehicle is a black 2011-2018 BMW 5 or 6 Series with a missing passenger side mirror and passenger front reflector. St. Charles police are looking for assistance…
The National Weather Service is forecasting that Mother Nature will likely provide some tricks of her own this Halloween. Temperatures are expected to plunge well below the freezing point in the early morning hours Tuesday, with highs during the day only reaching to 30-35 degrees. In addition to the cold, snow showers are likely throughout the day, with a blustery Northwest wind sending wind chills into the low 20s. For commuters, the wind and precipitation might produce some slick travel conditions, especially on elevated surfaces. All the little monsters out there planning trick-or-treat festivites are cautioned to bundle up!
A man is dead after being caught in a house fire in Montgomery Sunday morning. At approximately 8:47am, Montgomery Police responded to a structure fire at a residence in the 1800 block of Ness Way. Officers found the two-story residence with notable black smoke and evidence of active fire. Three individuals escaped the home safely and reported that they believed a male was possibly still inside. Firefighters entered the home and found the man already deceased. Six fire protection districts responded to the fire to assist in efforts to extinguish the fire and maintain safety in the area. Authorities evacuated…
On the evening of January 14, 2018, Naperville resident Michael Armendariz was murdered execution-style, with two shots to the back of the head, in an SUV five miles from his apartment. Friday, DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin announced that a jury has found a former Chicago woman, 43-year-old Candace Jones, guilty in the murder. The jury returned their guilty verdicts after approximately one and one half hours of deliberations following a four-day-long trial in front of Judge Michael Reidy. Additionally, the jury also found Jones guilty of Armed Robbery, a Class X Felony. Jones is one of three individuals…
Just in time for Halloween, local restauranteur and filmmaker Nick Smith has announced that the long-awaited sequel to his St. Charles-based 2011 movie “Munger Road” is finally in the works. On the most recent podcast of the St. Charles Business Alliance, Smith proclaimed that “Munger Road, Part 2” is on the way and will again be produced in St. Charles. “The sequel to Munger Road is going to be a really, really fun movie. We’re looking forward to producing it here in St. Charles.” The original movie revolves around a longstanding legend about a railraod crossing on Munger Road in…
Another suspect has been charged related to a St. Charles home invasion involving a shooting which occurred in January 2023. The crime left one man dead and another in hospital. At around 7:37pm Saturday, January 14, St. Charles police officers arrived at an active scene at the 100 block of Walnut Drive on the city’s west side, just east of Randolph, having been alerted to shots fired inside an apartment. They immediately came upon a man who had sustained a gunshot wound to the chest area being dragged out of the apartment by a 26-year-old Lindenhurst man. The wounded man…
Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain provided a Facebook update on the recovery of one of his deputies who was critically injured earlier this week in a head-on collision with a pickup truck hauling a trailer. The injured deputy, 33-year-old Brian Anderson, suffered multiple leg fractures as a result of the accident and has been receiving treatment at Good Samaritan Hospital in Aurora. “First and foremost, I want to sincerely thank everyone on behalf of the Sheriff’s Office for their outpouring of support following the crash involving Detective Anderson on Monday morning. The head-on crash was nothing short of horrific and…
Rafael Hernandez-Villa, a chef at St. Charles’ El Puente Restaurant, was killed Tuesday evening when his bike was hit by a vehicle on West Main Street in St. Charles. Hernandez-Villa was 61 years of age. According to reports, Hernandez-Villa was riding his bike home from work at around 9pm Tuesday evening when he was struck by a Jeep Wrangler in the 1300 block of West Main street. An investigation showed that a 2021 Jeep Wrangler was traveling east in the left eastbound lane of West Main Street while Hernandez-Villa, on his bike, was traveling west in the center dual turn…
