September 06, 1987|By Andrew Fegelman, Chicago Tribune.
KANKAKEE — Three people have been arrested in the kidnap and slaying of Stephen B. Small, 40, the great-grandson of an Illinois governor and a member of a wealthy family in this Downstate city, authorities said Saturday.
The body was found buried in a wooden box in a rural area outside Kankakee at 10 p.m. Friday, two days after he was abducted and held for $1 million ransom. Police said the body, buried under three feet of sand, was discovered after an air and ground search of woods near Hopkins Park, a town about eight miles southwest of here.
A maroon 1987 Mercedes-Benz registered to his wife, Nancy, was found several hundred feet from where the body was found. Investigators located the car at 7 p.m. Friday.
Police said they were searching for at least two other persons in connection with the kidnap and slaying.
The three people arrested- a 30-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman from Bourbonnais and a 33-year-old man from Kankakee-will be formally charged on Tuesday with aggravated kidnaping and murder, according to Kankakee Police Chief Timothy Nugent.
An autopsy to determine the cause of Small`s death was scheduled for later Saturday. He was abducted at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Police said the wooden box Small was placed in had a ventilation system. Small was ``definitely buried alive,`` said the Kankakee County coroner, James Orrison, earlier Saturday.
``He was apparently placed in a shallow grave in a homemade wooden box with a pipe for an air supply that ran about 20 feet underground and came up. He was also given water and even a little light,`` Orrison said.
Small had been dead at least several hours when he was found, Orrison said. He could not estimate how long Small had been in the box.
``Apparently, the air supply was not sufficient,`` he said. ``Before we do an autopsy, it looks to me like he probably suffocated or had a heart attack because of the situation he was in.``
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