Richard and Lynn Ehlenfeldt are shown in the picture taken in 1990.
On Jan. 9, 1993, shock went through the small community of Columbus when the morning news told of one of their own former residents being killed along with his wife and five other people in a restaurant in Palatine, Ill.
On the night of Jan. 8, 1993, co-owners of a Brown’s Chicken and Pasta restaurant in Palatine, Richard and Lynn Ehlenfeldt, former residents of Madison, were shot to death along with their employees Michael Castro, Guadalupe Maldanado, Thomas Mennes, Marcus Nelson and Rico Solis. The restaurant was robbed at the same time.
The case was not solved until a girlfriend of one of the perpetrators came forth in March of 2002 to tell police that her former classmates committed the crime. In May of 2002, Juan Luna and James Degorski were taken into custody and eventually charged with murdering seven people. The two men confessed that they wanted "to do something big." In May of 2007, Luna was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Then, more than two years later, starting on Aug. 31 after an eight-week trial, Degorski was also convicted of the seven murders and the jury recommended life in prison without parole.
Richard Ehlenfeldt grew up in Columbus, eventually becoming a deacon in the United Methodist Church. He served as pastor of the former Lost Lake Methodist Church and as an assistant pastor of Trinity Church, United Methodist in Beaver Dam. Before moving to Illinois, Richard was active in politics, both at the state and federal levels. He was a top aide to Wisconsin Gov. Martin Schreiber, served as an assistant secretary of state for Wisconsin, helped to do advance work for Sens. George McGovern and Ted Kennedy, and also worked as an advance man for President Jimmy Carter. Leaving politics, he began doing cable franchise work in the Chicago area. After a few years in the franchising business, and being laid off, Richard and Lynn took all their savings to purchase the fast food restaurant and to build a new life, hoping for security for themselves and their daughters.
Lynn Ehlenfeldt grew up in Clintonville, the daughter of a judge and school teacher - Judge Nathan Wiese and his wife Joyce. She majored in social work in college and put her skills to good use working for the Madison Association for Retarded Citizens and a northern suburban-Chicago school district, setting up volunteers for the schools. She was extremely active in her daughters’ academic and sporting events and was a church member, working hard for peace and social justice. While living in Boston, Lynn ran a halfway house for women who were just leaving prison and were acclimating back into society.
Even in the restaurant business, Richard and Lynn continued to serve the people. They would work extra hours so that their younger and older employees could have extra time off and would send food home with employees who needed it. They donated food to organizations in the Palatine area, including providing the day’s leftover food to a neighborhood home for Catholic nuns.
The Ehlenfeldts have three daughters who continue to serve the people in the way their parents would be proud of. The oldest daughter is Jennifer Ehlenfeldt Shilling, who serves as a Wisconsin state representative from La Crosse and is a wife and mother of two children. Dana Ehlenfeldt Sampson is a physical therapist in the Phoenix, Ariz. area, and is a wife and mother of four children, and Joy Ehlenfeldt of Chicago is a physical therapist working with babies and very young children.
Now is the time when the real healing begins. Sixteen years of waiting for a conviction and final sentencing of the second of two murder trials is a long time to wait.
As Richard’s sister, it has been a long, hard process to become happy and content again, but it can be done now that it is all behind us and the worst is over.
This was the second of two trials for these murders. The first one was in 2007 and took about six weeks. This latest trial took eight weeks. During these two periods of time a tremendous bond was formed between six families of differing backgrounds, differing languages and differing feelings about the desired outcome. Some of us wanted the end result of the trials to be a sentence of life in prison without parole and some of us wanted a sentence of the death penalty. (Illinois has the death penalty however it is now on a moratorium.)
Even with these major differences between the families of the victims, a relationship was built so strongly that even a tap on the shoulder or just a nod was understood by all. No words were needed.
Since the end of the trial we do not have that support given by each other and tremendous voids exist in our lives. E-mails back and forth between the family members attest to this.
Seven precious individuals were taken from six families too soon. They were all important individuals.