Ex-Con Captured, Questioned About Double Murder: Cops

JOLIET, IL — An ex-convict who may have been at a Cass Street body shop when a local couple was killed there was arrested and questioned Thursday.

The unidentified man was taken into custody for allegedly violating his parole. Detectives started interrogating him Thursday afternoon, police said.

Investigators believe the man was present when Michael Oram, 48, and Jamie Wills, 43, were beaten to death inside Fleet Specialty Painting on Cass Near Bissel Street, said Deputy Police Chief Al Roechner. Detectives were unsure whether the man was a witness or the killer, he said.

Oram’s father owns the body shop where his son and Wills were killed, sources said.

Officers went to the man’s last known address in Bourbonnais Thursday morning but were told by his family he has not lived there in months, Roechner said. Police then secured a parole violation arrest warrant and tracked the ex-con down at a motel in Chicago Heights.

He reportedly refused to come out of his motel room so the cops went in and got him.

Autopsies performed Thursday revealed Oram and Wills were beaten to death. They suffered multiple blows to their head.