A man who brutally murdered a west suburban girl during a botched burglary more than a decade ago has died in prison. Now, the victim’s mother says her daughter can finally “rest in peace.”
Kelli O’Laughlin was 14 when she returned home from Lyons Township High School on Oct. 27, 2011, as a burglar was ransacking an upstairs bedroom. The teen’s mother later came home to find her daughter stabbed to death, face down and lying in a pool of blood.
John Wilson Jr. was convicted of Kelli O’Laughlin’s murder and sentenced to 160 years in prison in 2014. The 49-year-old died in prison on Tuesday, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. The agency would not release his cause of death, adding that an investigation is ongoing.
“The day has come for Kelli Joy to rest in peace,” the victim’s mother, Brenda O’Laughlin, posted on Facebook on Thursday. “You took away Kelli’s future by your calculated vile actions. You took away our ‘joy’ of watching our baby grow up to see the woman she would have become.”
In acts of added cruelty, Wilson had sent taunting text messages from Kelli’s cellphone to her mother and father, including one that read, “She wanted me to tell you something before I killed her,” according to court testimony.
The cellphone — which investigators tracked for a GPS signal — was one of several ways authorities linked Wilson to the crime.
Comments under the mother’s Facebook message ranged from remembrances for Kelli O’Laughlin to prayers for the family to gratitude that the teen’s killer is gone.
“I’m glad he’s no longer a threat to others,” one person wrote on the mother’s Facebook page. “Your strength is incredible.”
“And now he faces his final judgment,” another person wrote, “one that will last for eternity.”
Family and friends have honored Kelli O’Laughlin’s memory in many ways over the years.
The Plainfield Road bridge across Interstate 294 was renamed the Kelli Joy O’Laughlin Bridge in 2019. Loved ones routinely write messages in honor of the teen in the large letters along the bridge’s fencing — like “Justice for Kelli Joy” or “Forever our Kelli Joy” — by placing plastic cups in the holes of the chain links.
Her parents also founded the Kelli Joy O’Laughlin Foundation, a nonprofit that has awarded $789,000 in scholarships, as well as helped support a summer camp and fund holiday gifts for children in need, according to Brenda O’Laughlin’s recent Facebook post. The teen’s friends and former classmates have hosted regular car washes to benefit the foundation.
Brenda O’Laughlin did not immediately return Tribune requests for comment.
“Kelli Joy your light will never be extinguished,” the Facebook message from Brenda O’Laughlin added. “Kelli your legacy continues to shine through. Your qualities of goodness have overcome death’s bounds by memorializing your spirit whenever a smile, friendship, or laugh is created. … You may not be here with us physically but your legacy lives on.”
