More than a year after Joseph Kalamaris was found dead inside a parked SUV in Des Plaines, police say forensic evidence has finally identified his killer. Alexander Hoegner, 36, was arrested Wednesday at a gas station in Huntley and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting death of the 33-year-old Rosemont man.
Kalamaris's body was discovered on July 23, 2025, around 4:25 p.m. inside a white Dodge Durango with Tennessee license plates parked at 994 North Ave. in Des Plaines, according to the Journal & Topics. Family members found him inside the vehicle and called 911, and dispatchers reportedly warned responding officers they could hear intense screaming over the call. A neighbor told the outlet they saw a weeping woman sitting on the sidewalk as officers arrived at the scene.
Investigators, per CBS Chicago, say Kalamaris had been riding in the Dodge Durango with Hoegner and another man, with Hoegner seated in the back seat directly behind him. Police said Hoegner shot Kalamaris in the back while the SUV was moving through Des Plaines. The driver then pulled over in the 500 block of South Bender Road, according to the Journal & Topics, and ran off on foot, according to CBS Chicago.
Inside the SUV After the Shooting
With the driver gone, Hoegner climbed into the driver's seat and drove the Durango a few blocks before abandoning it in the 900 block of North Avenue, leaving Kalamaris in the front seat of the vehicle, CBS Chicago reports. The identity and role of the man who was driving and fled on Bender Road has not been disclosed, and that remains an open question in the case.
The arrest capped what CBS Chicago described as a year-long investigation, one that the Journal & Topics reports was carried out by the Des Plaines Police Department in coordination with the Major Case Assistance Team, which pools detectives from suburban Chicago departments for major violent crime cases, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.
A Brief Detention, Then a Year of Waiting
Hoegner was not unknown to investigators during that stretch. In August 2025, Des Plaines police briefly detained him after he fled a traffic stop in Northbrook and abandoned his car in Wheeling, according to a Des Plaines Police Department release. Officers declined to pursue his vehicle at high speeds on Willow Road and instead located him on foot in Wheeling, but he was released on August 10, 2025, without charges while the investigation continued.
It would take another year for forensic science to close the gap. Investigators said DNA and ballistic evidence linked Hoegner to the gun found at the scene, and the Journal & Topics reports that forensic analysis matched spent cartridge casings found in the Durango, along with Hoegner's DNA profile, to a fully automatic 9mm Glock handgun recovered during the investigation. That evidence was processed by the Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Laboratory in Mundelein, which serves more than 60 member police agencies across suburban Chicagoland, per the same account. The weapon's modification into a fully automatic firearm raises the possibility of additional weapons charges, though none have been announced.
A Prior Violent Felony on His Record
Court records reviewed by the Daily Herald show Hoegner was sentenced in Cook County Circuit Court in February 2011 to eight years in state prison after pleading guilty to first-degree carjacking and burglary stemming from a knife-point attack on a woman in a Hoffman Estates apartment parking lot in 2010.
Following his arrest in Huntley, Hoegner appeared in court in Cook County's Skokie courthouse, where a judge ordered him held at Cook County Jail while he awaits trial, CBS Chicago reports. The motive behind the shooting inside the SUV has not been made public, and it remains unclear whether the man who fled on foot in Des Plaines will face charges of his own.
Family Remembers a Young Father
Kalamaris left behind a young daughter, Marena Star Kalamaris, and his family established a memorial fund after his death to help with her care and upbringing, according to a Legacy.com obituary. He was 33 years old and living in Rosemont at the time he was killed.
