Increased protection efforts renewed following fatal stabbing of Illinois DCFS worker
CRIME
Increased protection efforts renewed following fatal stabbing of Illinois DCFS worker
Investigators say Deidre Silas was stabbed to death during a home check in Thayer, Illinois, four years after DCFS worker Pam Knight was killed in Milledgeville.
Author: Alfonso Cerna, Jenna Webster
Published: 5:54 PM CST January 5, 2022
Updated: 11:03 PM CST January 5, 2022
THAYER, Ill. An Illinois Department of Child and Family Services worker was killed during a home visit on Tuesday, Jan. 4.
Investigators say Deidre Silas was stabbed to death while checking on six children at a home in Thayer, Illinois. The village is located south of Springfield.
Authorities arrested 32-year-old Benjamin Reed who is charged with first degree murder and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
{snip}
Silas' death comes four years after
Whiteside County DCFS worker Pam Knight was beaten to death while performing a welfare check in Milledgeville on Sept. 29, 2017. Knight's attacker, Andrew Sucher, signed a plea deal for 21 years in jail with no parole.
RELATED: Dixon man says justice was not served after man who beat his wife to death gets plea deal
" (Sucher) ambushed her when she got out of the car. She didn't get five feet from the door of her car, and he nailed her," said Pam's husband, Don Knight. "Hit her in the head with one blow with his hand, knocked her down. And he took a steel toed shoe and kicked her in the head three times and destroyed the left side of her brain. Took her life right there."
{snip}