A 68-year-old man who fled the nation after being questioned in a 2004 Gold Coast murder has been charged with first-degree homicide following his extradition from Peru, officers mentioned throughout a detention listening to on Saturday.
David Barklow is accused of fatally taking pictures 40-year-old Kent Projansky inside Projansky’s Thirtieth-floor condominium within the 1100 block of North Dearborn Road on December 18, 2004. He was introduced again to Chicago final week after years of worldwide efforts to find Barklow, in line with Assistant State’s Lawyer Katie Siefert.
She mentioned Projansky’s physique was discovered mendacity on his again within the entry corridor, partially clothed, with 5 gunshot wounds, together with a contact shot to his decrease lip and a bullet to the again of the top.
A good friend discovered Projansky’s physique days later, after Projansky stopped answering calls. Officers found two spent .32-caliber shell casings within the condominium and a 3rd within the bed room, in addition to blood on close by stairwell railings.
Prosecutors mentioned family and friends advised investigators that Projansky bought hashish from his condominium and infrequently stored giant sums of money inside. One acquaintance mentioned Projansky might have as a lot as $20,000 within the unit and sometimes carried about $3,000 on his individual.
In accordance with Siefert’s detention submitting, neighbors reported listening to gunshots and whispering from the sufferer’s condominium round 11 a.m. on the day of the homicide. One neighbor later advised police she noticed a tall White man with medium-length grey hair carrying a tan jacket strolling away from the sufferer’s unit shortly after the noises have been heard.
Three days later, a development employee discovered a inexperienced duffel bag behind a financial institution within the 8500 block of West Higgins Avenue, roughly 14 miles from the crime scene and about two miles from Barklow’s mom’s dwelling in Park Ridge, mentioned Siefert. Contained in the bag have been a .32-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver with a defaced serial quantity, ammunition, blood-stained clothes, and gloves. Forensic testing later linked bullets and shell casings from the condominium and contained in the bag to the identical weapon, prosecutors mentioned.
Additionally within the duffel bag was a Galerie Lafayette purchasing bag containing a trench coat stained with the sufferer’s blood, Siefert mentioned. Galerie Lafayette is a European luxurious division retailer chain with solely two identified working areas on the time of the homicide: one in Paris and the opposite in Berlin. Homeland Safety information confirmed Barklow had traveled from New York Metropolis to Paris in November 2003, roughly a yr earlier than the killing, Siefert alleged, suggesting he might have obtained the bag there.
In 2017, the case was reopened below a statewide cold-case venture. The Illinois State Police lab allegedly discovered seven latent fingerprints on the gadgets contained in the duffel bag, together with on an ammunition field, that matched Barklow. DNA testing on the clothes and gloves tied each Barklow and the sufferer to the gadgets, Siefert mentioned.
Latent prints are the invisible impressions left behind when an individual’s fingers contact a floor, transferring sweat, oils, or different residues that may be revealed and analyzed via forensic processing. These prints have been collected in 2008, however initially produced no matches. When the case was reexamined in 2017 utilizing up to date fingerprint identification know-how below the statewide initiative, analysts concluded that the prints belonged to Barklow.
Siefert mentioned Barklow lived throughout the road from Projansky on the time of the killing. After he was questioned in 2019, he fled the US, first crossing into Canada after which flying to Sweden. Authorities mentioned he was later discovered residing in Ecuador earlier than being detained in April on the Lima, Peru, airport on an Interpol Purple Discover.
Whereas awaiting extradition in Peru, Barklow allegedly contacted a U.S. State Division official and claimed he had been cleared by Chicago police in 2019 and was in Germany when Projansky was killed. Homeland Safety information didn’t present any journey to Germany throughout that point, prosecutors mentioned.
Barklow, who has a 1995 federal conviction for financial institution fraud, has been detained pending trial.
“My workplace won’t ever cease working to hunt justice for victims and their households, regardless of how a lot time has handed,” Prepare dinner County State’s Lawyer Eileen O’Neill Burke mentioned in a press release. “I’m grateful to the Chicago Police Division for its thorough investigation of this case, and for essential help from the DOJ, the FBI, and Peruvian authorities who helped be certain that the defendant would face these prices in Prepare dinner County.”
Unique reporting you’ll see nowhere else, paid for by our readers. Click on right here to help our work.
