Kevin Fox of Arkansas: Coerced Confession, Exoneration, and Crash

Kevin Fox, the Illinois father who was wrongfully jailed for the 2004 rape and murder of his three-year-old daughter Riley before DNA cleared him, spent his final years in Dardanelle, Arkansas, where he had remarried, started a new family, and run a painting business. He died in a head-on car crash on State Highway 7 near Dardanelle on March 20, 2023, at age 46.¹

The Crash Near Dardanelle

Fox was driving north on State Highway 7 on March 20, 2023, when a vehicle driven by 47-year-old Michael Glasscock crossed the center line into his path. The head-on collision killed both drivers. Arkansas State Police released the basic facts of the crash, but no further details on fault or toxicology have been publicly released.¹

A celebration of life was held on March 25, 2023, at the Dardanelle First Assembly of God Church. His obituary said he “overcame tremendous adversity during his lifetime in awe-inspiring fashion, setting an example to never give up and embrace the goodness of life.”²

Attorney Kathleen Zellner, who had led his defense and civil case nearly two decades earlier, posted on social media: “I just learned that one of our best, most courageous & kindest clients, Kevin Fox was killed in a car crash yesterday.” In a formal statement, she called him “a courageous fighter for justice, the best husband, father, son and brother imaginable.”³

The Life He Built in Arkansas

Kevin and Melissa Fox’s marriage did not survive what the family went through. The couple divorced, and both eventually remarried and started new families.⁴

Kevin moved from Wilmington, Illinois to Dardanelle around 2016 or 2017. He married his second wife, Carly, and they had three children together: Birdie, Dolly, and Teagan. Tyler, Riley’s older brother, was by then in his mid-twenties. Kevin owned and operated Fox Painting.²

Zellner later said Fox had turned down lucrative settlement offers on the eve of his civil trial because clearing his name mattered more. “He said that he didn’t care if we got 25 cents, he wanted his name cleared,” she told NBC Chicago.⁵

The 2004 Arrest and Coerced Confession

On June 6, 2004, three-year-old Riley Fox was found dead in Forked Creek near Forsythe Woods, close to the family’s home in Wilmington, Illinois. She had been abducted from the house during the night, sexually assaulted, bound with duct tape, gagged, and drowned.⁶

Nearly five months later, four Will County sheriff’s detectives brought Kevin Fox in for questioning. The interrogation lasted roughly fourteen and a half hours. Detectives fed him details of the crime and pressed him to confess.⁷ By the end of the session on October 26, 2004, Fox had given a videotaped statement admitting he killed his daughter. He recanted almost immediately, saying police had coerced it.⁸

Fox was charged with first-degree murder. Will County State’s Attorney Jeff Tomczak announced his intention to seek the death penalty and requested a $25 million bond, just days before a competitive election that Tomczak would lose to challenger James Glasgow.⁹ Fox could not post bond and sat in the Will County jail.

DNA Exoneration

Kathleen Zellner took on Fox’s defense and pushed to have DNA evidence from the crime scene independently tested at a private laboratory rather than wait out the FBI’s nine-month backlog. The results came back on the night of June 16, 2005, and excluded Kevin Fox “with 100 percent certainty.”¹⁰

The next day, newly elected State’s Attorney James Glasgow dismissed all charges. Fox walked out of jail after 243 days behind bars.¹¹ Glasgow told reporters he had an “ethical obligation” not to proceed once the DNA excluded Fox.¹²

The Real Killer

Riley’s murder remained unsolved for years. In 2008 Glasgow asked the FBI to take over, and agents began working the case from scratch in June 2009. They identified Scott Eby, a convicted felon who had been living about a mile from the Fox home at the time of the murder and was already in prison for a separate sexual assault.¹¹

Evidence pointing to Eby had been sitting in police possession from day one. Officers had recovered a pair of sneakers from the creek the day Riley’s body was found, with Eby’s name written on the tongues, and never traced them to him. Wilmington police had also conducted a welfare check at Eby’s home shortly after Riley’s disappearance, during which Eby asked whether they had “found the little girl yet.”⁶

After FBI agents interviewed Eby in prison, he attempted suicide, then gave a written confession and a detailed video statement. He admitted breaking into the Fox home intending to burglarize a neighbor, finding the back door unlocked, abducting Riley when he found nothing to steal, sexually assaulting her at Forsythe Woods, and drowning her after she saw his face.¹³ In November 2010 Eby pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and predatory sexual assault and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.¹⁴

At the sentencing, Kevin Fox addressed Eby directly: “I still can’t believe that people thought I was the monster in front of me now. You deserve everything that is handed to you.”¹⁴ Eby died in prison at Menard Correctional Center on December 7, 2023, at age 52.¹³

The Civil Rights Judgment

Six weeks after Kevin was jailed, Zellner filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Kevin and Melissa Fox under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The defendants included Will County, the sheriff’s office, five sheriff’s detectives (Edward Hayes, Michael Guilfoyle, Scott Swearengen, Brad Wachtl, and John Ruettiger), former State’s Attorney Tomczak, a polygraph examiner, and a forensic interviewer. Tomczak reached a confidential settlement and was dropped from the case before trial.⁹

In December 2007, a federal jury found the five detectives liable on nearly every claim, including false arrest, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution against two of them, and Melissa Fox’s loss-of-consortium claim. The jury awarded $15.5 million. Will County insurance covered $9 million; $6.2 million was punitive damages assessed against the investigators personally.¹⁵

The detectives appealed. In an April 2010 opinion, Seventh Circuit Judge Terence Evans rejected their qualified-immunity and probable-cause arguments, calling the officers’ theory about Riley’s injuries “absolutely absurd.”¹⁶ The court upheld the jury’s core findings but reduced the total award to approximately $8 million, ruling that the original amounts for Kevin’s false-arrest damages and Melissa’s emotional-distress damages were excessive.¹⁷ That judgment, won years before he moved south, was the foundation of the Arkansas life he was still building when he was killed.

1
CBS News Chicago. Kevin Fox Killed in Crash in Arkansas
2
Legacy.com. Kevin Fox Obituary
3
ABC 7 Chicago. Kevin Fox Dies in Car Accident in Arkansas
4
ABC News. Mom Opens Up About Botched Police Investigation Into Daughter’s Murder
5
NBC Chicago. Kevin Fox, Exonerated in the 2004 Murder of His Daughter, Dies in Arkansas Head-On Crash
6
ABC News. FBI’s Hunt for Riley Fox’s Killer Revealed Major Mistakes
7
Chicago Tribune. Riley Fox Murder Probe Became Unguided Missile
8
Chicago Magazine. The Nightmare
9
Daily Herald. State’s Attorney Dropped From False Arrest Suit in Riley Fox Case
10
FindLaw. Fox v. Hayes
11
Will County State’s Attorney’s Office. State’s Attorney Glasgow, FBI Announce Charges Against IDOC Inmate for 2004 Murder of Riley Fox
12
ABC 7 Chicago. Kevin Fox Released After DNA Evidence Clears Him
13
ABC 7 Chicago. Scott Eby, Killer of Riley Fox
14
CBS News. Scott Eby, Who Admitted to Rape and Murder of Riley Fox, Dies in Prison
15
ABC 7 Chicago. Fox Family Awarded $15 Million in Civil Rights Lawsuit
16
Courthouse News Service. Damages Cut to $8M in Case of Exonerated Man
17
Chicago Tribune. Court Upholds Finding That Police Framed Kevin Fox