Richard Illes

If you are like me and a true crime fanatic then you likely watch all the television documentary show. You know, 48 Hours, Dateline, and all of the Investigation Discovery shows. We all know that it is not unusual to see several different shows on one story. And, again, if you are like me there are certain cases that if you heard one more thing about it you may scream. For me the two that come to mind are the Celeste Beard and Michelle Michaels cases. For me though, this case is not one of those and the strange thing about it is that it is a spouse on spouse case. Yes, it is one of those cases that you have often heard me say are so routine that they often do not “grab” me. I am not sure why this one is different. Maybe it is because while Richard Illes was a suspect very early on, it took nearly four years to arrest him. Maybe it is because even police officers have admitted that he was the smartest man they had ever encountered (the problem is that he knew it) and yet he was still so dumb as to get caught. Or maybe it is because that while most murders are senseless, this one seems more so considering that both Richard and Miriam Illes had so much going for them.

On January 17, 1999 Susan and Duane Van Fleet went to the home of their friend, Miriam Illes in Williamsport Pennsylvania. They were concerned because she had not showed up at church that morning to teach her Sunday School class. It was not the fact that she had not come to church that worried them, but the fact that Miriam had not called Susan to tell her. Susan was known to replace Miriam in her class and so she had always called and told her if she would not be there. When the Van Fleet's got to the home they immediately noticed that Miriam had not gotten her paper that morning and there was mail in the mailbox. They knocked on the door but did not get an answer. Then they walked around the house looking in windows. It was Duane who would see Miriam laying on the kitchen floor. Presumably the couple attempted to get into the house but all of the doors were locked and they immediately called 911.

When officers arrived at the scene they broke down the back door to enter the kitchen so they could get to Miriam but it was fairly easy to determine she was no longer alive. They were also fairly fast in knowing this was a murder. There was a bullet hole through the kitchen window and glass was covering counter. Next to Miriam's shoulder was a cordless phone. They had no way of knowing it at the time but she was on the phone at the time of her death and so they were able to later determine the exact time Miriam had died.

I cannot tell you exactly when Miriam had moved into this home with her five year old son, Richie, and her dog(s) but I can say she had lived there less than a year. Miriam was going through a divorce from her husband, Richard, a prominent heart surgeon, and she had moved out of their home in March of 1998 with Richie. Of course we all know that the spouse is the first person authorities look at when there is a murder, and this case was no different, but the fact that all of Miriam's friends were telling them that it was a very contentious divorce made them all the more suspicious.

Investigators would seal off the home to look for more clues and search the surrounding area. They quickly determined that the shot that had come through the kitchen window, broke apart and pierced Miriam's heart, had been shot from a “wooded gully” nearby. They had found shoe prints in the snow leading to a tree that would have given someone a direct look into the kitchen window some 75 feet away. Near the tree was a cigarette butt also. Investigators followed the shoe prints until they would reach the main road where they disappeared but while doing so they also came across a homemade silencer for a rifle. They would theorize that the perpetrator had parked on the road, walked to the gully in the snow and then on his way out had thrown the silencer. They believed the silencer had been left and disposed of on purpose seeing as it was found on a nearby tennis court. There was a fence around the court and the shoe prints did not lead to the side so it indicated that the perpetrator had tossed the silencer over the fence from where he was standing.

Around five that evening Richard Illes would show up at the scene. It had been his weekend visitation with his son Richie and he was bringing him back to his mother. He was stopped by investigators and asked to wait at a nearby home as an officer would be there soon to interview him.

When first interviewed Richard would tell investigators that he had picked Richie up around 5:00 on Friday evening. This part would stay constant. He would add new things (it is difficult to determine what he added, when) in subsequent interviews but to be fair in my opinion none of the things were super significant or suspicious so I am going to tell you what he would eventually say the weekend had entailed. So he had picked Richie up and headed back to his office to finish up some paperwork. He stated that he had told Miriam he was unsure of his weekend plans and that they may have included taking Richie to visit with some of his family about three away. There had been a snowstorm recently but by all accounts by that evening, none of the areas in which Richard would claim to drive through had any additional snow fall. Again, in fairness it was said that the previous days had brought not just snow but freezing rain and sleet which made the roads a bit more difficult than just an average snowstorm would have done. At any rate, Richard would say after going to the office he had taken Richie to Burger King where the two grabbed food to take back to his home, arriving between 6:30 and 7:00. He stated that around 7:00 he had called Miriam and told her that he had decided on the visit with family and after the call he began packing. He stated he left home around 9:30. On the way he had stopped again at a McDonald's, some thirty-five miles or so from Miriam's home saying that Richie was hungry and needed to use the bathroom. At around 11:30 he called his sister saying that the weather was not good and that he had decided to stay at a hotel for the night in Selinsgrove. He would later say that after a few stops he was unable to find a room until he got to Harrisburg, where they checked in at about one in the morning. On Saturday they had visited with Richard's sister and spent the night and then on Sunday, before returning home they had gone to see Richard's father.

At this first interview investigators asked Richard to speak to Richie. He agreed but stated only if a child psychologist was present in the interview. Now, this will probably be the only time you will hear me say this in this blog, but I agree with Richard. They obviously did not want him in the interview and to be honest I would not have allowed my child to be interviewed alone or without the presence of a person I completely trusted or as he said, a child psychologist. Much would be made of this, much more than I feel was fair. Investigators would apparently continue to ask to interview the five year old but it would be close to two years before that would happen and in my opinion valuable time was wasted. The investigators and the media wanted it to look bad for Richard, in essence saying he prevented them from interviewing Richie, but I do not honestly see it this way. It is unclear just what they were able to obtain from Richie when he was finally interviewed.

A search warrant was issued for Richard's home and it was said several items that could have been used to make the silencer they had found on the tennis court were found and gathered in his home. There were other things found in the home that were not taken as evidence but investigators did take pictures of them. One of the most significant things was a book on a nightstand called “The FBI Handwriting Analysis Book.” Investigators felt that it was odd that a heart surgeon would be reading such a book. Another thing that seemed a bit odd to me, if not investigators also was the fact that soon after the murder Richard moved out of his home an into another. It did not seem clear if he was in the middle of the move when the search warrants were issued, or whether they were both searched at different times. I find this odd because one of the biggest things in the divorce that he and Miriam were going through had been who would occupy the home they owned, often described as a mansion. Initially both of them wanted to live in the home but Miriam would move out with Richie in late March, about a month after the divorce had been filed and according to friends, family and her attorney, she did so because Richard refused to and she felt they could no longer live under the same roof. And yet, here he was, after her death moving from the home. I can only assume that he sold the home and with her no longer living he did not have to share any profit with her. At any rate it was said that Richard was given a list of the items that were gathered in the search but he had not been present through the search. This is significant because Richard only knew what was taken, not what was seen or what pictures had been taken.

By now Richard had obtained an attorney and within days of receiving the list of what was taken in the searches his attorney would receive the first of two anonymous letters. In the first letter the writer too blame for the shooting saying that it was done so because Miriam was racist. It had been signed “Soldier of God, Soldier of Equality, Soldier of Death” and indicated it was the person's mission so to say to rid of the world of these evil and racist people. The first letter was postmarked just four days after he learned what had been taken from his home. The second letter was received in May of 1999 and again it was sent to Richard's attorney. In this letter the alleged shooter talked about himself and described himself in a way that indicated the writer was none other than a business partner of Richard's named Dr. Nche Zama. Investigators looked into Zama and not only did they determine he had no motive or apparent issue with Miriam, of which he apparently knew well, but he had what investigators called an “ironclad alibi.” The letter had gone on to say that Richard could not have been the killer of his “evil wife” and that the writer had access to his home when he was gone on vacation and had used many of the items in the home to build the silencer. But, the most interesting thing about these two letters were that they had been written in pencil and in block letters, something the book they had found in Richard's home had suggested. The book had indicated that these were the most difficult types of letters to trace because ink was not used and by using the block letters it disguised the writing of the person. We will talk more about these letters in a bit.

The case was seeming to drag a bit. At this point while investigators had their suspicions, they did not have nearly enough to charge Richard, or anyone else. Then in the summer of 1999 a fisherman was walking in some woods when he thought he had tripped over a branch only to discover that it was a rifle. He called the police and they went to recover the weapon and search the area. The rifle was a .22 caliber, the same caliber used in the murder. It was a rare type of rifle and it would be determined that it had been sold in 1949, long before records were kept on ownership. Two months later some shoes would be found not far from where the gun was found. The shoes apparently were the same size, 14, and prints that were found in the woods near Miriam's home. Investigators would find it interesting that these items were found just about a quarter mile from the route in which Richard would claim to have driven on the night of the murder.

As time went on, despite their suspicions, neither the investigators, nor the prosecutors believed they had enough to arrest Richard. They had discovered a few other things along the way. One of the most important things was the fact they were able to determine that Miriam had been shot at 10:37 pm on Friday night. They knew this because she was on the phone with a friend in Montana at the time. The friend, Mary Dixon, heard a sound of breaking glass and just after a moan from her friend. At first she thought Miriam had simply broken a dish. Then she thought with the storm the way it was that the lines had somehow picked up a 3^rd party. I know to the average person in the modern era of cell phones this seems odd but really it was not unheard of at the time. Mary attempted to call Miriam back but received a busy signal and believed the lines had just gone down The following day she called and got the answering machine and left a message.

Richard and Miriam had met in about 1990 when they were both working and living in the St. Louis area. They would marry in 1991 and soon after move to Pennsylvania where Richard had family. He started out in the York area but what was only described as personality conflicts led them to moving to the Williamsport area. At the time Richard was obviously a heart surgeon but Miriam worked as his surgical assistant. Not long later Richie was born and when he was two Miriam had decided to quit her job and be a stay at home mom. It appears that this is when things, not surprisingly changed for the couple. Friends of Miriam's would say that Richard was a very controlling person and apparently since Miriam was no longer working he expected or demanded more. He wanted everything inside and out to be perfect and he expected things like dinner to be at a particular time and a certain way. For her part it seems that by February of 1998 she was suspicious that Richard was having an affair but it seems that Miriam would have stuck it out and worked on her marriage. In late February she had she had gone to the Atlanta area to visit with family for what appears to have been just a few days. When she returned she was soon served with divorce papers. In fact, the papers would claim that they had separated on February 20^th, the day she had left on her trip, and he had alleged that she had permanently left Richie with him, hence his filing for custody of their child.

Many of Miriam's friends said that she wanted to work things out with Richard but he was not interested. Soon it would be learned that her suspicions were true about the affair. He became involved with his assistant, Katherine Swoyer. It became quite the scandal at the hospital considering many there had previously worked with Miriam and were still friends with her.

After seeking advice from her own attorney she had been advised that she should remove the money from their joint bank account. Not thinking this was fair Miriam had gone and taken half of the approximately $60,000 they had in the bank. A bank employee would later say that Richard came in the bank later that day “very irate” that she had been allowed to do so without notice to him. He then took the remaining money out, closed the joint account and opened one in his name only. It would later be determined that prior to filing for the divorce Richard had already removed large sums (although I did not find a specific amount) of money from the account.

As I stated earlier, one of the biggest arguments in the divorce was over the home that they owned. Each had asked for it in the settlement and it appears that at least initially neither was willing to move out, giving the other possession. But, very quickly it seems that Miriam realized this arrangement would not work and she moved out with Richie in late March of 1998. Whether she moved directly into the home she would later be murdered in was not completely clear to me.

While the divorce had been filed in February of 1998 by January of 1999 it had not been completely settled. Attorney's for each side blamed the other for the delays. Just what was true, and why those delays occurred I cannot say for sure. Some divorces can drag out because one person is purposely not compiling with things so that do not “lose” as much or because they are holding out hope that the marriage can be fixed. Both of these things could have been true in this situation from both sides. It seems that the only real thing that had been addressed was the issue of child and spousal support and this seemingly took a lot of their time. It was said that in May of 1998 Richard was ordered to pay $1,150 a month in child support and $7,620 in spousal support, as well as it was to be retro acted back to March 27^th when Miriam moved out of the home. These amounts were changed a few times but it seems that it had finally been settled in August in which he paid $5,506 in child support and $7,216 in spousal support, coming to nearly $13,000 a month. Now, if you listen to interviews that Richard has done with the press he will claim that this was nothing to him as far as money considering what he was making. But, then again he also tends to go on and only about the fact of what a wonderful mother Miriam was. I take issues with both of these issues. First, sometimes it is not about the amount of money one must pay another and whether it significantly hurts them, but it is the fact they are getting money at all. There are those in a divorce who sometimes say they will not give a penny. On the surface, long after her death Richard would make these claims that the support was not a big deal but two things tell me that it was. First is the fact that in November of 1998 he was served with contempt dealing with the support. I did not find a specific amount that he owed allegedly in arrears or if that was settled before Miriam's death. What it does say is that he either was not paying at all, or was not paying what the courts had ordered him to pay. Secondly a friend of Richard's would later say that he himself had gone through a divorce about a year before Richard and that when Richard heard what he was paying in support had commented if he was forced to pay that amount he would “take her out.” Secondly, I take issue with Richard's comments about what a wonderful mother Miriam was to their child. It is not just that he would say she was a good mother, it is also in his tone of saying it in a very praising way. It leads me to question if he really and truly believed this why he was fighting her for custody of their child. That indicates that it was less about what was good for Richie but more about control, power and money.

Investigators still did not think they had enough to charge Richard. About six months after Miriam's murder Richard would marry his girlfriend and former assistant, Katherine Swoyer. I cannot tell you exactly how long the marriage would last or why they would later divorce but I can say that sometime before December of 2002 they were divorced and Richard had moved on once again. But, he had not moved on in Pennsylvania. In the mean time Richard was still facing a custody battle for his son, only this time he was fighting Miriam's family. They were convinced that he was responsible for her death and feared Richie was in danger. In November of 2000 Richard packed up his family and moved to Laredo Texas for a job. Authorities were worried about this because it was so near the Mexican border. They feared that as they gathered more evidence and came closer to obtaining an arrest he would flee the country. All my research stated was that the job in Texas did not work out. He then applied for a job in Spokane Washington. It appears that he must have felt he was on the edge of getting the job because he moved there. But, he was not hired. It was said that the administrator of the hospital received an anonymous package that was full of newspaper articles about the murder and his possible role. Allegedly many institutions received a similar package. Some believe that it was from Miriam's family, others believe possibly from law enforcement. It is reasonable to believe that since Miriam's family had filed for custody of Richie and it was in the courts that he had been required to inform them of any moves, and possibly get the courts permission to even do so. I cannot say this was a fact, but if true then they would have been aware of where he was and where he intended to work.

With his career as a heart surgeon apparently in peril it seems that Richard decided to change courses and went into cosmetic surgery. It seems that administrators were less worried about his possible history in this area than in the profession that had him working on vital organs. Of course there is also the idea that they may not have known considering that these “mysterious” packages may have gone to a different department since it would be assumed he would continue as a heart surgeon.

As December of 2002 was approaching it seems that Williamsport investigators felt they were getting close to being able to arrest Richard for the murder of his estranged wife. They had asked authorities in Spokane to keep an eye on him for them. On December 17^th authorities from Pennsylvania went to Washington and assisted in Richard's arrest. He would be extradited to face trial. It would begin apparently in late December 2003 and last some five weeks.

I have to admit that some of the evidence the prosecution presented seemed a bit sketchy. They had recovered DNA and hair fibers from the cigarette butt, the silencer and even on one of the anonymous letters sent to Richard's attorney. It was said that all five of the samples they received and had tested came from five different sources, none of which matched to Richard, nor seemingly were they matched to anyone. Prosecutors would allege that this was so unusual that they believed that these samples had been planted to throw off the investigation and lead away from Richard. The defense of course would claim that it did just that, lead away from Richard as they proclaimed his innocence. But, the prosecution did have some things on their side.

First there was the issue of the gun. It appears, or at least it was alleged that the gun found by the fisherman the summer after the murder was in fact the murder weapon. They also claimed that Richard had inherited this gun from his Godfather, Joe Kowalski who had died and Richard was the executor of his will. While Richard argued that he did not wear a size 14 shoe, which was not only found near the gun but the size of the prints near the scene, prosecutors would allege that a fiber on the shoe matched those found in a vacuum cleaner at Richard's home. They would obviously allege that he had worn these shoes to say just what he did, he did not wear this size.

Prosecutors would say that Richard's computer had been analyzed and a manuscript had been found entitled “HeartShot: The Murder of a Doctor's Wife.” My research indicated that the manuscript was all but finished except for these final chapters that were then being written. They would say that even the names in the book were the same. Now, whether the manuscript followed his claims as to his whereabouts is not clear so I cannot say that they were able to use this with their theory of how and what happened on that night. For his part Richard would claim that he hoped to get it published and that it would generate interest in the case and produce leads. I will go into my thoughts on this later.

Another thing that the prosecutors would allege was that Richard had drugged Richie in some way to make him sleep so that he would be unaware of what Richard did at any particular time. To be fair I do not know that they had any proof of this or how this theory came about. Remember, they did not speak to Richie until nearly two years after the murder. It is unlikely that Richie, who was only five when his mother was murdered, would have remembered much of anything, let alone if his father had given him any “medication” or even food and drink. Richard himself admitted to feeding Richie twice that evening, once at Burger King, and once at McDonald's. As far as the trip to McDonald's went investigators believed that the shooter did not know that Miriam was on the phone at the time of the shooting or that her time of death could be pinpointed practically to the minute. They believed that the visit to McDonald's was an effort to be seen by others to strengthen his alibi.

A handwriting expert testified that the anonymous letters sent to Richard's attorney did have similarities to Richard's writing. The jury was made aware of the fact that Richard had possessed a book, that was sitting out in his home as if he was in the process of reading or using the book recently, that had described just the type of manuscript that was in the letters.

Then there was the issue of money that the prosecution brought up. To be fair I agreed with some of what they said regarding this issue, but not all. Of course they brought up the issue of the amount he had been ordered by the court to pay and the fact that he was behind on those payments. They also brought up that four days after her murder his divorce attorney had written a letter to the court informing them of her death to have the wage attachment taken off as well as terminate support. Now, this is the part I am unsure would make a difference to me. The man was ordered to pay $13,000 a month to a woman who was no longer living. Whether he committed the murder or not it seems reasonable that he would attempt to stop those payments. The only thing that seems a bit rash about it is that in order for this to be filed on Tuesday it is likely that the phone call was made on Monday, the day after the murder was discovered. But, giving the benefit of the doubt to Richard here, I do not find it overly suspicious or conclusive of his guilt. The prosecutors would also bring up the issue of insurance. While they were married the couple each had a policy that was apparently through his work. There was $750,000 on Richard and $250,000 on Miriam. During the marriage the beneficiary on each was the other partner. After the separation Richard changed his beneficiaries to Richie and his then girlfriend, Katherine Swoyer. Miriam was unable to change the beneficiary on her policy due to the fact that it was through his work. Prosecutors would point out that on February 4^th Richard had applied for those benefits. Here again though, while I think the issue of insurance was worth mentioning, and I agree it was one more thing pointing to him, I am unsure I agree that it made a significant point in alleging he was the murderer. The claim was made three weeks after the murder. If it was a significant reason for the murder then I believe it would have been made sooner. Then again, we know that Richard Illes was very well off financially and so while he may have wanted the money, it was not necessarily imperative that he got it immediately. It was said that the insurance company did not pay out on the policy however because the case was under investigation.

The prosecution was able to point out that Richard owned and even repaired a lot of guns. They had already shown how they felt he was connected to the murder weapon but they also wanted to show that while he had the tools to make the silencer, he also had the know how and ability.

Then there was the story of his alibi. Duane Van Fleet, the man who discovered Miriam's body, was also friends with Richard and he allegedly called him about 7:15 on the night of the murder. It appears that he must have been made aware somehow that Richard was planning on making the trip to see his family. I found the notes about his testimony a bit odd. Allegedly he would call Richard to warn him about the weather for his trip but went on to say he had driven with Richard before in bad weather and Richard was not one that as intimidated by it. While I personally have not lived outside the state of Indiana, I have lived from top to bottom. What I have learned is that areas that are used to snow, know how to handle it and are on top of it. Areas that are not used to inclement weather can actually make things worse with their inability to remove it or prepare for it properly. The latter was not very likely to be the case in Pennsylvania. While yes, it was said that there had been freezing rain and sleet along with the snow over the past few days, by the time that Richard was driving through those areas it had been close to twelve hours since the last drop of precipitation had fallen. The trip he was making should have only taken him a little over three hours. While I cannot tell you how far Harrisburg was from his sisters home, according to his story he had left his home at 9:30 and made a quick stop some 35 miles away for food and a bathroom trip. And yet two hours into his trip he is calling his sister saying that the weather was too bad and he was stopping for the night. Even still he allegedly could not find a hotel room until nearly one in the morning... another nearly two hours after talking to her. So, in three and a half hours, and making one allegedly quick stop, he was still not close enough to her home to just keep driving. According to Google that same trip from Williamsport to Harrisburg would take less than two hours. Actually it says one hour and forty-three minutes. If you ever use Google Maps then you know the time they give you is generally longer than it actually takes. Keep in mind that this was late at night, which would have likely, in normal weather, gotten him to his destination much soon, but giving him the benefit of the doubt that driving there was not perfect he still should have gotten there in close to that amount of time. By what could be proven, it took about twice the amount of time. It appears that the prosecution believed Richard did not believe that the road conditions of that night could be disputed and it would just be believed. That did not seem to be the case.

By their assessment and using their theory Richard likely circled back to Williamsport, fired the shot into Miriam's window at 10:37 pm, walked back to his car that he left on the main road, throwing the silencer on his way out, and then once again left Williamsport. I was not clear on when his stop to McDonald's occurred but I believe that it had happened prior to the shooting to give him his alibi and look as if he was on his way out of town. Then they believe that he had turned off the main road at some point and got rid of the gun and the shoes, about a quarter mile off his route. If you believe this theory then he did not leave Williamsport until about 10:45 that night and got to the hotel in Harrisburg some two and a half hours later. That is still thirty minutes past the time that it would normally take to get there according to Google Maps. This would have been plenty of time to dispose of the items as they had alleged.

It seems that the defense just simply stuck with the “he is innocent” defense. They would continue to press that his alibi of driving out of town was what had happened and that he had taken no part in the murder. Richard would not testify in his own defense. In fact, I am unsure just who, if anyone, the defense put on the stand.

It took the jury two and a half days, and more than one try, before they came up with a verdict. In February of 2004 they would convict him on charges of first degree murder. The verdict came with an automatic life sentence.

In 2009 Richard would file an appeal citing the standby argument of ineffective counsel. His appeal was denied. But this is not the end of his story, or his court filings. At some point Richard filed a case to sue the “State Correctional Institution on Camp Hill.” He had been housed there in August of 2010 for a period of what looks to be about twenty-five days. It was only said that he was there because he had an “appearance in federal court” for “another civil case” but I found nothing specific about if this case was about him or someone, or something else. At any rate the suit was claiming that he had been deprived of adequate food while he had been at this institution. As is the case in many civil cases the initial case had multiple defendants but by the time it was decided by a jury in January of 2016 the only defendant that had not been dismissed was the Unit Manager, Christopher Chambers. The suit specified that he had missed about forty-six meals and lost twenty pounds in the days that he was housed there due to the fact that he was not getting prescribed pain medication and it prevented him from standing at his cell door, as was required, to receive his meals. The defense was able to prove that Richard had all but demanded a particular drug that had been denied but that he had refused a replacement drug. Again, I do not know the specifics but even if I gave him the benefit of the doubt considering he was a doctor there was more that was presented that would lean me away from that decision. The defense showed that he not only had not complained of this while he was imprisoned but he had not sought to have disability accommodations. They were also able to show that he had seemingly walked to other places at the prison, some in separate buildings such as the library and visitors room, without issue. He would lose this case.

Soon after his arrest in Spokane Richard had filed something else with the court. Remember Miriam's family had already been fighting for custody of Richie? Well the day after his arrest a judge granted her sister, Virginia Butler, who lived in Florida custody of him. Richard fought this asking the courts to allow his current girlfriend custody in Spokane. The judge ruled against him in part saying that Richie would be spared the wide publicity of the case if he were in Washington or Pennsylvania and his best chance at normalcy would be in Florida.

I realize that this case has become one of the longer ones that I have written but there was so much information to be conveyed. With that said, I left out some things. As I said in the beginning my fascination with this case may have something to do with the fact that even officers admitted that he was probably the smartest man in the room, no matter what room he was in. One officer said he was likely smarter than each individual officer, but not smarter than them all together. Despite any efforts they believe he made to cover his tracks, such as planting evidence, sending the anonymous letters or even letting himself be seen at the McDonald's, he had not covered every track he left.