Lockport’s ‘Butcher’ Murderer John Raue Moves To Channahon

CHANNAHON, IL — Lockport native John Raue, who killed his 22-year-old spouse Sonya Rene Raue whereas their 3-year-old son slept— then minimize off her head, arms, legs, torso and put them into separate trash luggage for the rubbish truck to retrieve — was granted parole from the Illinois Division of Corrections, Patch discovered.

Raue, who simply turned 59, resides in an upscale Channahon subdivision, in line with the Illinois Assassin and Violent Offender registry.

In July 1990, Raue, then 26, dismembered his spouse’s physique after utilizing a rope or twine to suffocate her; she additionally suffered one blow to her head, in line with post-mortem findings. He nearly bought away with murdering her. On July 2, 1990, he hauled a number of trash luggage containing her dismembered physique elements to the road curb within the 400 block of East 14th Road. Two rubbish males unknowingly threw the luggage into the again of their rubbish truck. However as the lads compacted the rubbish, one of many luggage tore open, and a human leg got here out. Horrified, the rubbish males notified Lockport’s Police Division, and the remainder of Rene Raue’s physique was recovered from contained in the 5 different rubbish luggage.

On the time of his arrest, Raue had labored the previous 5 years on the Conco Western Stone quarry close to Aurora. His father was a U.S. Division of Agriculture meat inspector and his grandfather had as soon as been a butcher, in line with a July 19, 1990, story within the Herald-Information. John Raue’s grandfather, Harold, served as mayor of Lockport from 1937 via 1949.

“Mrs. Raue’s physique was dismembered in a fashion just like butchering meat,” Will County’s State’s Lawyer Ed Burmila informed the newspaper on the time of Raue’s first courtroom listening to.

Rodney Lechwar was the presiding choose for Raue’s jury trial on the Will County Courthouse. Raue had employed Ira Goldstein, one in all Will County’s most high-profile prison protection legal professionals throughout that point interval.

John Raue’s first-degree homicide case turned the main target of quite a few front-page banner headlines in The Joliet Herald-Information throughout 1990 and 1991.

This is a sampling of headlines:

“Grisly Slaying Shocks Lockport.”

“Safety Tight For Butcher Suspect’s First Day In Courtroom.”

“Raue Needed Weekend Alone With Spouse.”

“I might By no means Been This Mad Earlier than.”

“Raue Admits Killing His Spouse.”

“A Troubled Marriage, A Grisly Loss of life.”

“Jury Did not Cry For John Raue.”

On the time, Lockport Police Chief Robert “Whitey” Miller mentioned that Sonja Rene’s homicide marked the group’s first murder since 1986 and solely the second in 25 years.

‘A Horrible Sight’

Miller mentioned every of the lady’s limbs, her head and torso have been discovered inside separate rubbish luggage after the rubbish truck was emptied on the Lockport metropolis storage and searched.

“It was a horrible sight,” Miller informed reporter Scott Koeneman of the Herald-Information. “I have been right here 30 years this November, and I’ve by no means seen something prefer it. This was simply horrible.”

The chief deputy coroner for Will County at the moment testified about two puncture wounds close to the sufferer’s stomach, brought on by a barbecue fork used to carry her physique in place in the course of the dismemberment course of.

Sonya Rene Holsey was born in West Virginia and lived in Lockport the final 10 years of her life. She was buried on the Resurrection Cemetery in Romeoville.

In a stunning growth initially of his 1991 jury trial, John Raue pleaded responsible to the crime of concealing a homicidal demise.

Goldstein’s trial technique was to persuade the jury to convict his shopper of a lesser included felony comparable to manslaughter, which carried a most jail time period of 15 years, in comparison with first-degree homicide, which carried a jail time period of 60 years.

“Mr. Raue is responsible of murder, however he’s not responsible of first-degree homicide,” Goldstein informed the courtroom throughout his shopper’s trial.

In accordance with the newspaper protection, Goldstein argued that John Raue was a loving father who could not take his spouse’s ingesting, infidelity and poor remedy of their 3-year-old son. Since 1989, Sonya Rene had a behavior of leaving the home in Lockport, going out all night time and never returning residence, he mentioned.

“She would keep out, and the subsequent day there can be no rationalization,” Goldstein informed the jury. “Her ingesting drawback would intrude together with her duties as a spouse and mom.”

On Sonya Rene’s final night time alive, Saturday, June 30, 1990, she knowledgeable her husband of her plans to exit round 10 p.m. He stayed residence and fell asleep, together with their younger son. When she got here residence at 2 a.m. on Sunday, July 1, John Raue bought up and requested the place she had been.

When he noticed her panties have been inside her purse, a combat ensued, the jury heard.

“She hits him. He hits her. They wrestle for the purse and within the wrestle he misplaced all management and goes right into a blinding crimson rage,” Goldstein informed the jury. “It was not one thing accomplished cold-bloodedly. It was within the warmth of ardour.”

‘Ice In His Veins’

Jeff Baldacci, Will County’s Assistant State’s Lawyer on the time, reminded the jury it took not less than two to a few minutes for Sonya Rene to die from strangulation. Baldacci reminded the jury how John Raue dismembered her physique and put her within the trash luggage for the rubbish truck to get.

“Is that sudden and intense ardour?” Baldacci requested the jury, in line with the newspaper accounts. “Is that sudden rage? He says he beloved her. Is that proof of passionate rage? I feel he has ice in his veins. He beloved her? Is that what you do to somebody you like after your sudden ardour has gone away?

“Earlier than you return within the jury room and take a handkerchief and dab your eyes for John Raue, bear in mind he by no means cried for Sonya Raue.”

“Man Will get 70 Years For Murdering, Dismembering Spouse,” declared the Chicago Tribune headline from June 15, 1991. Raue bought 60 years for homicide and 10 years for concealment of a murder.

Years later, an Illinois appeals courtroom ordered a re-sentencing in reference to the lesser felony. The appeals courtroom judges decided that Will County’s trial choose had not made it clear to Raue when he pleaded responsible to concealment of a murder, that Raue’s potential sentence may run consecutive to any homicide conviction sentence the choose imposed.

Raue’s sentence for concealment of a murder bought diminished from 10 years to 5 years, in line with the Illinois Division of Corrections web site.

Raue now residing in Channahon

Then, on Feb. 24, 2022, the 58-year-old Raue was paroled from the Stateville Correctional Heart, after being incarcerated for 31 years and seven-and-a-half months. In accordance with the Illinois Division of Corrections web site, Raue is 5-foot-10 and weighs 190 lbs. He has a tattoo throughout his chest of a wizard, a tattoo throughout his again of an eagle, and a tattoo on his left arm with the letters V and H.

On Dec. 15, Raue celebrated his 59th birthday. The Illinois State Police maintains a Assassin and Violent Offender Towards Youth offender, and that is how Joliet Patch found Raue is now free and residing within the village of Channahon, a 24-minute drive from his hometown of Lockport.

By the way, Raue is the one assassin recognized on the Illinois State Police web site who’s a present Channahon resident. One other man on the registry was convicted of tried homicide and residential invasion in Channahon, however that man stays in jail on the Illinois Division of Corrections facility in Pinckneyville. A girl convicted in Grundy County of home battery in opposition to an 8-year-old youngster can also be on Channahon’s registry.

The Illinois Murderer registry indicates Raue lives on South River Path within the Indian Trails north subdivision. The 2-story home the place Raue resides was inbuilt 1995; it is appraised at $367,183, in line with Will County’s evaluation information. Will County property information checklist the home-owner as John Raue’s sister-in-law.

After the funeral service and burial at Resurrection Cemetery, Sonya Rene’s household informed the Joliet newspaper that her marriage to John Raue was rocky from the start.

“They fought on their wedding ceremony night time,” remarked her brother William Holsey II for a narrative revealed July 12, 1990. “They have been preventing over him not permitting any of her buddies to come back over to a celebration after the marriage.”

Her sister, Miranda Swinson, additionally informed the newspaper, “Nothing is ever going to be the identical once more. We’re going to should face this on daily basis for the remainder of our lives. In every little thing I take a look at, I see Rene.”