The defense team for 83-year old Chester Weger will create an innocence petition to try and clear his name. But until then they want to find out what person’s hair was found on one of the Starved Rock Murder victim’s gloves that Attorney Andy Hale says is not Wegers’. Another test will be done on hairs found on victim Lillian Oetting’s fist and the floor of the cave in St. Louis Canyon. Hale says the DNA he is looking for in those tests won’t give a direct match to someone but will show that it doesn’t belong to Weger.
Judge Michael C. Jansz Friday also approved a subpoena against “The Starved Rock Murders” Author Steve Stout. Hale says Stout has documents from Weger’s 1960 murder trial including the confession which Hale says is a forced confession. Some of the documents have also apparently been kept at the LaSalle County Historical Society, which Hale says he was shocked to find out. Weger’s defense team also wanted to find out if the LaSalle County State’s Attorney’s office had more documents from the trial. Judge Jansz says there were none. Weger will be back in court on February 24th. Hale says by that time we should know more information about the hairs. Weger has been trying to clear his name sixty-two years after the Starved Rock Murders. He was paroled in 2020.