Joliet murders: Suspect's girlfriend released on electronic monitoring after court appearance
JOLIET, Ill. - The girlfriend of the man who murdered seven of his family members in Joliet is being released on electronic monitoring after her court appearance on Thursday.
Kyleigh Cleveland-Singleton, 21, is charged with obstruction of justice in regard to the investigation into the homicides. She was arrested on Wednesday.
She faces up to six years in prison if convicted.
According to Joliet police, during their investigation, Cleveland-Singleton was identified as the girlfriend of the suspect, Romeo Nance, and the mother of his 2-year-old boy. At that time, police did not know where the child or Cleveland-Singleton were.
As the investigation continued, police learned the child was maybe with his mother and grandmother at a home in Plainfield. Detectives traveled to the address and located both the child and Cleveland-Singleton. She voluntarily agreed to be transported to the Joliet Police Department for questioning.
After the questioning, detectives believed Cleveland-Singleton made statements in order to prevent the arrest of Nance.
The Will County State's Attorney's Office then approved one felony count of Obstructing Justice.
Nance died by suicide on Monday night when confronted by U.S. Marshals near Natalia, Texas.
On Monday afternoon, seven people were found dead at two Joliet homes, which led to a manhunt for Nance.
Around noon, Joliet detectives and officers responded to the 2200 block of West Acres Road and located multiple deceased individuals inside two homes. Police say five people were located in one home and two others were located in the other home. All the victims were shot to death.
Police on Wednesday said the victims were related, and their identities were released the day before.
- Tameka Nance, 47, mother
- Christine Esters, 38, aunt
- William Esters II, 35, uncle
- Joshua Nance, 31, brother
- Alexandria Nance, 20, sister
- 16-year-old female, sister
- 14-year-old female, sister
Timeline of Joliet Police Department investigation
Around 12:08 p.m. on Monday, Joliet police were dispatched to the 2212 West Acres Road following a notification from Will County Sheriff's deputies who, during an investigation into a homicide that occurred the day before in their jurisdiction, discovered seven individuals shot to death in two homes.
Outside the home, deputies uncovered indications of a potential crime. Subsequently, they entered the residence and found four female victims, aged 14, 16, 20 and 38, along with a 31-year-old man. All the victims had sustained gunshot wounds.
Then, deputies discovered another possible crime scene at 2225 West Acres Road and entered that home as well. There, they located a 47-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man, who also suffered gunshot wounds.
At that time, Joliet officers responded to the scene, and it was determined that the shootings at the two homes most likely took place during the midday hours on Sunday. The shootings appeared to be domestic in nature, police said.
Following the discovery of the seven deceased individuals, detectives identified Romeo Nance as a suspect in the homicides. It was also believed that Nance was involved in two other shootings that took place sometime Sunday evening.
Timeline of Will County investigation
At approximately 4:27 p.m. on Sunday, the Will County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call reporting a shooting at the Pheasant Run Apartments, which is located at 5 Pheasant Run Road in unincorporated Joliet Township. Deputies were advised that a person was lying on the ground and bleeding from the head.
Deputies located the man, who was later identified as 28-year-old Toyosi Bakare, who was originally from Nigeria but had spent the last three years in the Will County area. Bakare suffered a single gunshot wound to the head, which entered his left eye. Despite life-saving measures, Bakare died as a result of his injuries.
The sheriff's office believes a 9mm handgun was used in the shooting, but further confirmation was needed. Additionally, the sheriff's office believed this was a random attack. They do not believe robbery was a motive as money was near the scene. They believe Bakare left his apartment to go out and get cigarettes. Video recovered from the scene showed the suspect's vehicle, a red Toyota, both entering and exiting the Pheasant Run Apartment complex.
While securing the scene, deputies learned a 42-year-old man just a short time prior was shot in the leg in the 200 block of Davis Street and sustained non-life-threatening injuries. The victim told Joliet police officers that the suspect's vehicle in the incident was also a red Toyota. Police determined that these two incidents were random, but connected.
By 8 p.m. on Sunday, law enforcement identified the suspect's vehicle, which was a red Toyota bearing Illinois license plate Q73 0412.
Investigators employed License Plate Reader (LPR) cameras to monitor the movement of the suspect's vehicle across the Will County area. The identified vehicle was associated with Romeo Nance, a Joliet resident with a significant criminal record.
Will County Sheriff's Office personnel directed their efforts toward locating the suspect's vehicle by implementing saturation patrols across the local area. The focus was on residences linked to Nance.
When the vehicle could not be located, Will County Sheriff's Office detectives set up surveillance in the 2200 block of West Acres in Joliet in hopes that the vehicle would return to the residence, officials said.
When the vehicle was not located and the vehicle's movements were no longer active, the sheriff's office released information about the suspect's vehicle to the public. At that time, officials believed Nance had fled Will County.
The sheriff's office then went to 2212 West Acres to contact the registered owner of the suspect's vehicle but received no response at that residence. Knowing that the house across the street was also associated with the suspect, detectives attempted to make contact with residents inside that home on Monday afternoon.
When detectives approached the house, they noticed blood on the outside of the door along with bullet holes on the exterior of the house located at 2225 West Acres.
Inside the home, they located two deceased individuals. At that time, Joliet police responded to the scene.
Members of the Will County Sheriff’s Office and the Joliet Police Department then entered the residence located at 2212 West Acres and discovered five more deceased individuals inside that residence, officials said.
Just before 6 p.m. Monday, the Will County Sheriff's Office, which was coordinating with the United States Marshals Service, advised that Nance was believed to be traveling in Texas.
Around 8:30 p.m. on Monday, the Joliet Police Department was informed that Nance had been found by U.S. Marshals and other Texas law enforcement officers in the vicinity of Natalia, Texas. Nance pulled his vehicle into a gas station and exited his vehicle with a firearm and fled on foot once he observed law enforcement.
Nance then shot himself as law enforcement began to close in on him, officials said.
Family members and coworkers of the victims say one of the victims was a corrections officer at the Joliet Treatment Center for over five years. She lived with her sister and her sister's three children.
The suspect's girlfriend and the suspect's uncle lived in the second home, family members say.
"I've been a policeman for 29 years. This is probably the worst crime scene I've ever been associated with," said Joliet Police Chief William Evans.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden issued another statement on the shooting, pushing for Congress to take action on gun safety legislation.
Police did not release a motive, but did say that Nance knows the victims.