A 30-year-old Aurora man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after holding his girlfriend against her will for a week inside his trailer at a Marengo RV resort, strangling her and threatening to shoot her with a shotgun he kept pressed to her head. Stephen A. Dracousis pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping, a Class X felony, in connection with the ordeal that unfolded between November 2 and November 8, 2024, at Lehman's Lakeside RV Resort.
The case, first reported by Shaw Local, detailed how Dracousis was already on pretrial release for an aggravated domestic battery charge out of DeKalb County involving the same woman, and had been explicitly prohibited from contacting her or possessing firearms and ammunition at the time he took her captive. The 65-acre resort, which sits off Interstate 90 near the Hampshire exit along Harmony Road in unincorporated Marengo, offers more than 295 campsites and an eight-acre lake, according to Lehman's Lakeside RV Resort.
A Strangling That Started It All
According to Shaw Local's account of court records, the ordeal began on November 2, 2024, when Dracousis choked the woman until she could not breathe; she later told investigators she thought she was going to die. Per a court motion cited by the outlet, she was left bruised, and the Daily Herald reported that Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Anthony Marin said the choking caused her to cough and vomit, with emergency room staff later treating chest bruises. Dracousis denied any physical altercation had occurred, per the same court motion.
For the following days, the woman told her mother on November 7 that she did not feel free to leave the trailer because Dracousis had access to a firearm, according to Shaw Local's reporting. She later said Dracousis was armed at all times and threatened to kill her and himself if she tried to leave. Court motions detailed by the Daily Herald described Dracousis placing the shotgun against her head and putting the barrel in his own mouth while threatening to kill them both.
Police Left the Scene, Then Came Back
McHenry County Sheriff's deputies first responded to a well-being check but left the resort without contacting either Dracousis or the woman. Police radio traffic reviewed by the Lake and McHenry County Scanner indicated the first call came in around 6:20 a.m. on November 8, with deputies clearing the scene after concluding the victim was not present. Deputies were dispatched back to the trailer around 8:50 a.m. after the woman's father called to report she was being held against her will, and her mother also called for help, according to Shaw Local.
Once officers returned, a sergeant received a text from the woman's own phone number reading simply, “help me please.” Officers then used cellphone location data while trying to make contact with her inside the trailer. Dracousis came out of the trailer at one point before going back inside, and he reportedly threatened to shoot both the woman and the police. When officers made contact, he was holding a shotgun pointed at the door.
SWAT Team Ends the Standoff
A SWAT team arrived to assist officers, and the woman was ultimately taken to a hospital. Police searching the trailer afterward found a shotgun hidden inside a mattress along with a variety of other handguns and pistols, per Shaw Local's reporting. The Sheriff's Office issued a public safety alert during the barricade, telling nearby residents about the heavy law enforcement presence while stressing the situation was isolated and posed no ongoing threat to the public, according to the Lake and McHenry County Scanner.
Dracousis later admitted he knew he was not supposed to contact the woman and acknowledged he had violated the conditions of his pretrial release, according to Shaw Local. He claimed the firearms in the trailer were there for privacy and safety. Criminal complaints filed in McHenry County Circuit Court described the woman as being in her 20s and in a dating relationship with Dracousis, per the Scanner's report.
Detention, Guilty Plea, and Sentencing
At his initial court appearance, McHenry County Public Defender Kim Messer argued against pretrial detention, alleging discrepancies in early law enforcement reports and asserting that the firearms recovered from the trailer actually belonged to the woman, the Daily Herald reported. Prosecutors disagreed, and McHenry County Circuit Judge Cynthia Lamb granted the state's petition to deny pretrial release on November 9, 2024, after Assistant State's Attorney Marin argued Dracousis posed a real and present threat to her safety.
Dracousis ultimately pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping, with additional charges — including kidnapping, aggravated domestic battery, aggravated restraint, firearm possession with a revoked FOID card, and violating pretrial release conditions — dismissed as part of the plea deal, according to Shaw Local. Aggravated kidnapping is a Class X felony under Illinois law, carrying a statutory sentence of 6 to 30 years and barring probation, per the Illinois General Assembly.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and will serve one year and six months of mandatory supervised release afterward. Under state truth-in-sentencing rules, Dracousis must serve 85% of that sentence, though he will receive credit for 636 days already spent in McHenry County jail. In the earlier DeKalb County case involving the same woman, Dracousis had pleaded guilty and was given probation.
A Pattern of Prior Convictions
Court filings reviewed by the Daily Herald listed Dracousis's primary address in the 300 block of Old Indian Trail in Aurora, distinct from the Marengo trailer where the standoff occurred. Records cited by Shaw Local also show Dracousis was found guilty in Kane County in 2020 of possessing ammunition without a valid FOID card, and was separately found guilty of battery and disorderly conduct in Kane County in 2022.
