Unit 1012 sends our utmost condolences and heartfelt
sympathy to the loved ones and family member of Donna Schnorr. She was killed
by Brian Dugan on July 15, 1984. We will remember her every year on March 30
and July 15.
We, the comrades of Unit 1012, will remember who she was
when she lived on this earth. There is some consolation as Pat Quinn had stepped
down as Governor of Illinois.
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Donna Schnorr
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PRECIOUS MEMORIES OF DONNA SCHNORR:
A Geneva nurse whose family has described her as independent, athletic and who loved to dote on her nephews.
Beth Bales: Remembering Donna Schnorr
On Friday,
it will be 27 years since a young woman living in Geneva was forced off Randall
Road, south of here, raped and murdered.
Posted by Beth Bales , July 13,
2011 at 03:03 PM
We passed the roadside cross on
Randall Road last Sunday, heading south to Aurora for a family birthday
celebration.
That’s right, I thought. July 15. I
pulled the date from my memory bank, somewhat surprised I remembered it so
effortlessly. It has, after all, been nearly 30 years.
Early in the morning of July 15, 1984,
Donna Schnorr of Geneva, a nurse at what was then Mercy Center in Aurora, was
driving home on Randall Road, after being at a party. In those early-morning
hours, it was later determined, killer Brian Dugan saw her at a stoplight, followed
her, sideswiped her car to run her off the road, raped her and drowned her in a
quarry. Her body was discovered later that day.
Her murder scared the bejeebers out of
me. I moved out of my apartment for a few days, scared to be alone.
She was only a year younger than I
was. She lived in Geneva. I lived in Geneva. She was traveling alone, late at
night. I sometimes did, as did just about all of my friends. I certainly did an
early-morning drive, every three weeks, when I filled my rotating shift as
night editor for The Beacon-News in Aurora. Presses ran at 2 a.m. That put me
on the road back home to Geneva after that. The difference between Donna
Schnorr and me was that I always opted for Route 31, over Route 25 which was
closer to my East Side apartment, because it was better lit and much more
heavily traveled.
It’s hard to remember today, with
Randall Road as developed as it is now, how UNdeveloped it was in 1984. And
remember, as well, we didn’t have cell phones. If someone ran us off the road, well,
good luck to you. There was no way to call for help.
I try to point out to my own kids the
dangers of this world. When I mention the dangers of driving alone, late at
night, the possibility that someone would do them harm, I sometimes get the
snappy response of, “yeah, like THAT’S really going to happen.” Well
yes, I say. It has. It can again.
Those are hard truths. But the world
hasn’t changed since Brian Dugan forced a young woman simply living her life,
having fun, working, being footloose and fancy-free, off a deserted road and
into hell.
On Friday, it will be 27 years since
that July day. Twenty-seven years—the length of her life. She’d be 54 today if
her path hadn’t crossed that of Brian Dugan, who would go on a year later to
kill 7-year-old Melissa Ackerman. He’d already murdered 10-year-old Jeanine
Nicarico of Naperville, the year before.
The roadside cross reminds us of her
life, and her death.
Her family will certainly remember her
Friday. Perhaps a few of us can remember her as well, and wish her and her
family, some measure of peace.
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Donna Schnorr, on
her last birthday, March 30, 1984, surrounded by nephews, Brandon, Ryan and
Erik.
Courtesy of the
Schnorr family
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