Author: Fox Valley Magazine

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…

The Venue in Aurora will be presenting a High Seas Halloween Party with yacht rock cover band The Yacht Rockettes on Saturday, October 28. The show starts at 8pm. Doors open at 7pm. Don’t miss this nautically themed, High Seas Halloween Party with specially-created island cocktails, costume contests and more. Guests are encouraged to dress the theme as they listen and groove to the smooth sounds of The Yacht Rockettes. The Yacht Rockettes are the world’s first and only female lead yacht rock cover band, bringing all the smooth rock of the 70s and early 80s. Tickets start at $15…

A Schaumburg man has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for the sexual abuse of two children in Elgin. Kane County State’s Attorney Jamie L. Mosser announced that 39-year-old Randall Porter Rabey has agreed to a sentence of 23 years of imprisonment in the Illinois Department of Corrections in exchange for a guilty plea to the offenses of: Between November 2015 and July 2017, Porter Rabey sexually abused two Elgin children that were under the age of 13. Porter Rabey knew the children. Porter Rabey was also in possession of child pornography. “Not only did Mr. Porter Rabey sexually…

(Photo credit: Payton’s Photography) St. Charles resident Liz Suwanski will see a dream come true next week as she competes on The Food Network’s “Halloween Cookie Challenge.” The show will air on Monday, October 30, at 9pm on The Food Channel. Suwanski is thrilled by the opportunity. “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. “This little hobby has given me so many amazing opportunities and allowed me to meet so many amazing cookie friends that I…

A lawyer and honoree of the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union who worked in the State of Illinois Comptroller’s office has been fired after expressing extreme antisemitic views in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. Sarah Chowdhury was also the president of the South Asian Bar Association of Chicago, a position she also lost because of the controversy. Chowdhury posted the antisemitic comments on her Instragram account around 12:30pm on Thursday, October 19. During an exchange on the platform, she referred to a poster as a “[expletive] Jew” and said “Hitler should have…

A Kane County Sheriff’s Deputy is in critical condition after his squad car was hit head-on by a pickup truck pulling a trailer. According to a KCSO press release, at approximately 6:56am this morning, an on-duty Kane County Sheriff’s Deputy was involved in a severe crash on Illinois Route 47, just south of Plank Road in Hampshire Township. Upon initial investigation, the collision involved two vehicles: a Kane County Sheriff’s Office squad and a Dodge Ram pickup truck towing a loaded trailer. The pickup was heading northbound on Illinois Route 47 when it attempted to stop in traffic. It then…