March 29, 2024
Crime & Courts

Department of Corrections removes paroled Yorkville killer from 2nd location

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The former Sandwich man convicted of a 1972 mass murder in Yorkville and paroled last month has been moved a second time after he was relocated to a sober living house in Calumet City, Illinois.

Carl Reimann, who was convicted in 1973 of murdering five people at a Yorkville restaurant, was paroled on April 26 against the wishes of the victims’ family members and officials including Kendall County State’s Attorney Eric Weis and Sheriff Dwight Baird.

After his parole was granted, Reimann was moved to a home in La Grange belonging to a couple who had visited him for many years in prison and were members of a church that supported his parole. However, that home was across the street from an elementary school and the school district, neighbors and parents expressed concern about his location.

Reimann was then moved to a fully furnished home in the 300 block of Memorial Drive in south suburban Calumet City. The house is a sober living facility owned by an organization called Elite Houses of Sober Living. That home is a block away from an elementary school as well as a park and recreation center.

However, in a message to parents sent Wednesday, May 16, Dr. Troy Paraday, superintendent of Calumet School District 155, wrote that the Department of Corrections had removed Reimann from the Calumet City home earlier that morning.

Paraday wrote that the Board of Education had been working closely with State Sen. Elgie R. Sims Jr., D-Chicago, and State Rep. Marcus C. Evans Jr., D-Chicago, regarding Reimann's location, and that the legislators worked with the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to have Reimann removed from the city "effective immediately."

"As of this morning, May 16, 2018, at approximately 6 a.m., [Reimann] was removed from Calumet City by the Department of Corrections," Paraday wrote.

Later on Wednesday, Calumet City Mayor Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush released a statement slamming the state for the "apparent steering of a paroled mass murderer away from a predominantly white suburban La Grange household near a grammar school to a similar location in a racially diverse neighborhood of Calumet City."

Qualkinbush said in her statement that Jason Garnett, chief of the Department of Corrections' parole division, had confirmed that Reimann "is now incarcerated in Dixon, Illinois."

Reimann was previously housed at Dixon Correctional Center, but it was unclear as of Wednesday afternoon if Reimann was being housed there temporarily until he can find permanent housing or if his parole was revoked.

Reimann is listed on the Illinois State Police Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth Registry. Reimann had previously been listed on the Department of Corrections website as requiring sex offender registration, but that designation has since been removed.

According to a presentence report in Reimann’s 1973 case file, Reimann was charged with “contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor child” on Sept. 8, 1966, in Aurora.

Reimann was convicted of the Dec. 29, 1972, murder of five people during a robbery at the Pine Village Steak House in Yorkville. Killed in the incident were David Gardner, 35, of Yorkville; Robert Loftus, 48, of Bristol; Catherine Rekate, 16, of Yorkville; John Wilson, 48, of North Aurora; and George Pashade, 74, of Aurora.

Reimann's accomplice in the robbery, Betty Piche, was convicted for her role and spent time in state prison but was released in the 1980s. She has since died.