Valerie Percy, 21, was killed in her bedroom at her family’s Kenilworth home on Sept. 18, 1966. She was the daughter of Charles Percy, then the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois. No one has been arrested or charged in the case, which remains unsolved, according to CBS Chicago.
Evidence without a confirmed suspect
Loraine Percy told investigators that she saw someone standing over Valerie with a flashlight and that the person fled after she activated the household burglar alarm. Investigators initially considered a home invasion for money or valuables, but Valerie’s purse, wallet and other household valuables were left behind, according to an account published by r/UnresolvedMysteries.
Investigators documented physical evidence that included bloody palm prints, a black leather glove and footprints near the beach. Police later recovered a U.S. Army bayonet from Lake Michigan, but it was not conclusively identified as the weapon used to kill Valerie, according to accounts by Defrosting Cold Cases and Wilmette Patch.
The scale of the investigation did not produce a confirmed suspect. TIME reported in 1973 that Illinois State Police and local investigators had interviewed more than 14,000 people and pursued 1,317 leads. The report also said the palm prints did not match Francis Leroy Hohimer or Frederick Malchow, the men then at the center of one investigative theory.
Competing explanations
Hohimer, who was serving a prison sentence for armed robbery in Iowa, identified Malchow as Valerie’s killer in 1973, according to the timeline published by CBS Chicago. TIME described the pair as connected to a Mafia-backed burglary group and reported that Malchow had died after a prison escape in Pennsylvania. The accusation produced no arrest or charge, and the reported physical evidence did not conclusively place either man at the scene.
A separate theory came from independent researcher Glen Wall, who identified William Thoresen III, a wealthy neighbor described in published accounts as emotionally disturbed, as a possible suspect. ABC7 Chicago reported that Thoresen was killed by his wife in self-defense in 1970 and was never charged in Percy’s death. Wall later self-published a book advancing the theory; it remains his allegation, not an official finding in the case.
Questions that remain open
The early investigation has also been questioned. Dr. Robert Hohf, a neighbor who pronounced Valerie dead, left a handwritten account, but police did not take his statement before his death in 1993. The account became public in 2011, according to Wilmette Patch.
Access to the investigative records remains limited. In December 2016, a Cook County Circuit Court judge rejected attorney John Q. Kelly’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking access to the estimated 20,000-page Kenilworth police file. According to Glenn Wall’s account, the court kept the file sealed because releasing it could impede an investigation that remained officially open.
What current data and records law can—and cannot—show
Modern clearance figures offer context, but not an explanation for the Percy investigation. According to the Hyde Park Herald, Chicago police cleared 71.2% of homicides in 2025, compared with 30.4% in 2016. Those city figures do not establish a statewide rate or explain why Valerie’s 1966 killing remains unsolved, but they illustrate how outcomes can vary across periods.
Illinois records law also permits authorities to withhold some material from an open investigation. In a separate 2022 Chicago FOIA case, Ballew v. Chicago Police Department, a court found that an agency affidavit explaining why disclosure could affect an ongoing investigation met the agency’s burden, according to guidance from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. That separate records-disclosure ruling does not determine the facts of the Percy case, but it helps explain why an open investigative file may remain partly or entirely inaccessible.
Public consequences
Charles Percy and Democratic incumbent Paul H. Douglas suspended their campaigns for two weeks after Valerie’s death. Percy won the November 1966 Senate election. Some accounts have suggested that public sympathy contributed to that result, but the available reporting does not establish that the murder caused his victory. CBS Chicago also reported that Percy later lost his 1984 reelection bid to Democrat Paul Simon: CBS Chicago.
Kenilworth recorded another homicide in 1991, when Diane Davis was found shot and killed in her bedroom. J. Nat Davis was later convicted and sentenced to prison, according to CBS Chicago’s timeline. Valerie Percy’s killing remains open and unsolved, with the identity and motive of the killer still unestablished: CBS Chicago.
