Kevin Fox Wiki - Kevin Fox Biography
Kevin Fox and his then-wife Melissa's daughter Riley went missing June 6, 2004. Dressed up in a Minnie Mouse costume for her son’s school Halloween party, Melissa Fox tried to put on a brave face for her 6-year-old boy and the world.
Just hours earlier, on Oct. 27, 2004, police had made an arrest in the tragic murder of her 3-year-old daughter, Riley Fox, claiming to solve and bring to a close the five-month-long, high-profile investigation. On the news, they were telling everybody there was an arrest made. I [knew] who they arrested, but nobody else did yet.” Melissa said.
Riley, an adorable, outgoing, and bright-eyed toddler, was found murdered in a creek just 4 miles from her home, shaking the small town of Wilmington, Illinois, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, to its core. In an instant, my life was forever changed and it was devastating,” Melissa told ABC News.
As Melissa fulfilled her promise to be with her son at school that evening, the Will County Sheriff’s Office was getting ready to announce its suspect: Kevin Fox, Melissa’s then-husband, and Riley’s father. In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ “20/20,” Melissa reflected on how she survived a parent’s worst nightmare, tirelessly defended her husband's innocence, and never gave up fighting for justice for her beloved daughter.
Kevin Fox Age
Kevin Fox's age is unknown.
Riley Fox Cause of Death
On June 6, 2004, the lives of the Fox family changed forever. That weekend, Melissa, then 25, and a group of friends participated in the AVON Walk for Breast Cancer in Chicago, where she stayed for two nights -- the longest she’d ever been away from her children. Kevin stayed home with the kids.
Melissa adored Riley and cherished her time with her little girl.“She had this perfect black hair and perfect little round face and blue eyes,” Melissa said. “She was funny. She was silly. Just, so talkative, and she was friendly to everybody she met. She was just a sweetheart. Riley was a lot like Melissa,” Jillian Garrelts, Melissa’s friend, said. “She was a spunky, sassy little girl. She ... could be a little princess... But ... she was a daddy’s girl, kind of a little tomboy [who] loved to fish … and wasn't afraid to get dirty.”
While his wife was in Chicago, Kevin, then 27, and the kids spent Saturday afternoon making posters in anticipation of celebrating Melissa’s walk at the finish line, where they planned to meet her the next morning. But early Sunday morning, Tyler woke up Kevin to tell him that Riley was missing.
Not thinking it was a true emergency, Kevin looked through the house and backyard. Then, after about 30 to 40 minutes, Kevin called the non-emergency number for police. He reported finding his front door open and Riley’s yellow blanket still on the couch, where she had been sleeping.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, Melissa and her friends were nearing the end of their walk when she called her husband to check in. “He sounded so startled. I knew immediately something was wrong,” Melissa said. “He just said, ‘Riley's gone,’ and I immediately hit the ground and the phone fell out of my hand.”
The women rushed back to Wilmington, where word of Riley’s disappearance had spread quickly throughout the small town of 5,000. They arrived to see the community mobilized, with dozens of volunteers searching for Riley in ditches, woods and the town’s forest preserves.
“It was something out of a movie… [I] feel like the entire town was out looking for her,” Colleen Hansen, Melissa’s friend, said. “Every area of the town was being canvassed in some fashion. For hours after Melissa had arrived, the town continued to search high and low for Riley. Then at one point, Melissa said a police officer placed her and Kevin in separate police cars.
“I didn't understand what was going on. When we got to the police station, they just started asking questions and I was like, ‘Is someone going to tell me what's going on?’” she said. The couple was unaware that two volunteers had found Riley facedown, wearing only a shirt, in a creek. She had duct tape across her mouth and what investigators believed to be duct tape residue on her wrists. Autopsy reports later determined that she had been sexually assaulted and drowned.
“It was just crushing,” Melissa said. “I couldn’t even stand. I couldn’t even think. I couldn’t even imagine what life would be like without her. From that moment forward, Melissa said she never stepped foot in the house where Riley had disappeared from again.
Arrested - Charges
Months passed with little movement on the case. On Oct. 26, 2004, the Foxes received a call from the Will County Sheriff’s Office asking them to come to the office as there were new developments in the case. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is it. They found the person,” Melissa said. “We were just grinning from ear to ear like we’re finally going to know what happened.”
But immediately upon their arrival, Melissa said they were separated and Kevin was taken to a backroom for questioning. Something just feel right,” she said. “I thought they were going to tell us what was going on. I know what's happening."
“I was stunned… For months, telling, ‘Stop looking at my husband. Kevin had nothing to do with it,’" Melissa said. About eight hours into Kevin’s interrogation, Melissa said police told her Kevin had agreed to take a polygraph exam and that he had failed. Melissa said she then spoke to her husband.
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“As soon as I got in the room ... I think they were really upset, that they thought they had me believing their story. And the second … I let Kevin know, ‘I don't believe them. It's OK’ … They didn't want me anywhere near him,” Melissa said.
She said the sergeant overseeing the investigation pulled her out of the room, yelled obscenities in her face, and insisted to her that Kevin had murdered their child. The Will County Sheriff’s Office has denied these claims. At approximately 8 a.m., Will County detectives said Kevin had confessed to killing his daughter. He had been questioned by police for about 14 hours and hadn’t slept in more than 24 hours.
According to the detectives, Kevin confessed that he had accidentally killed Riley when he opened the bathroom door and struck her in the head early Sunday morning and that he then staged her death to look like abduction and murder. Police said that he sexually assaulted Riley as part of the cover-up and dumped her body in the creek.
Investigation Report
Nearly 6,000 people attended Riley’s funeral a few days after she’d been found.
The attendees wore pink, Riley’s favorite color, and buttons with her picture on it while Martina McBride’s “She’s a Butterfly” played through the speakers. Riley was buried in the white flower girl dress she had worn to her uncle’s wedding just two weeks before her murder and new flip-flops that she’d wanted.
Melissa later learned Will County Sheriff’s Office detectives were also in attendance, videotaping Kevin.
“Within an hour of the funeral ending, [the police] came to my house,” Hansen said. “They asked if there was any reason that I would believe Kevin to be capable of doing something like this. … Before the question even came out of their mouth, my answer was, ‘No.’"
Desperate to find out what happened to her daughter, Melissa said she reached out to the detectives every day and that they assured her they were investigating the case thoroughly. Then, nearly three weeks after Riley’s murder, the detectives asked to speak to her brother, 6-year-old Tyler. Melissa and Kevin agreed.
For over an hour, a forensic interviewer questioned Tyler about Riley’s disappearance. On a videotaped recording, Tyler was seen crouching into his chair, covering his face, and crying while the interviewer questioned him. He told the interviewer 168 times that his father had nothing to do with the disappearance of his little sister, according to Fox’s attorney Kathleen Zellner.
When Melissa was able to view the recording at a later date, she was distraught. She said she allowed her son to be questioned because she trusted the detectives. “It was really sad to watch,” Melissa said. “Our family had been through so much. I had just lost a child and then to see the way that they decided to treat the one I still had was really terrible.”
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