Brown’s Chicken massacre: Marking 30 years since 7 people found dead in freezer at restaurant in Palatine, Illinois

PALATINE, Ill. (WLS) — Sunday marks 30 years since seven people were gunned down on a cold January night, during a robbery at Brown’s Chicken in Palatine.

Their bodies were found piled in a freezer on January 8, 1993.

All the victims worked at the restaurant, including owners Richard and Lynn Ehlenfeldt.

The killers were later identified as Juan Luna and James Degorski.

Police said they waited until the restaurant was minutes from closing before committing the deadly robbery of less than $2,000.

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The men remained free for years after the murders as a task force of multiple police agencies hunted down thousands of leads. Then finally in 2002, nine years after the murders, a former girlfriend of Degorski’s finally came forward.

Police connected Luna through DNA evidence found in a saliva sample from a chicken wing collected by a technician. At the time of the murders, DNA tracking was in its infancy.

Luna and Degorski are both serving life sentences. Though it took nine long years to bring them to justice, some say that allowed enough time for DNA evidence to advance to the point where they could be connected to the crime definitively.