String of Muggings Still Unsolved – Urbana, Illinois

Urbana, Illinois residents and University of Illinois students may have rested easy last week after the Urbana Police Department (UPD) and the University of Illinois Police posted on their Facebook pages that they had arrested the individual believed to be responsible for a string of three violent street muggings (screen capture of UPD Facebook post).

However, shortly after the 15 year old suspect was arrested, he was released because one or more victims could not identify him as the perpetrator, and there wasn’t any other convincing evidence to implicate the young man (see this News Gazette article).

Both Police Departments posted to Facebook on Wednesday evening, with the University of Illinois PD calling the arrest a “great work and collaboration…addressing these crimes”.  However, neither Police Department posted any follow-ups indicating that they had likely arrested the wrong person, that the suspect had been released, and that the perpetrators are still unknown.

The three street muggings occurred on December 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th, all within a few blocks of each other and about three blocks east of the University of Illinois campus.  This area of Urbana is home to many U of I students and staff and generally sees a lot of foot traffic to and from the University.

A review of Urbana’s police media reports shows a mugging on December 10^th around 3:42pm on the 300 block of West Elm Street committed by two ~18 year old males.  The report reads, “The unknown offenders concealed their identity by wearing ski masks and forcefully stole the victim’s phone and purse, which contained various items.”

The same media report shows a mugging on December 11^th at 6pm near West Oregon Street & South McCullough Street, committed by just one perpetrator: “Unknown offender used force to steal victim’s phone and backpack, which contained various items.”

Another mugging occurred just a block away on December 12^th around 12:25pm at West Oregon & South Orchard Street.  The victim of this mugging described the perpetrator as a 5’6” to 5’8” male with dark skin, teen to early 20’s, wearing a hooded camo jacket with black and blue circular pattern, pajama-like pants with black and white patterns.  The perpetrator was apparently nervous and dropped the victim’s cash while running away.

The Google map below shows the locations, times, and brief descriptions of the incidents described in this article (please note, this is not a complete list of all muggings in Urbana):

Another neighbor in the exact same area reported being stalked on the evening of the 11^th (around 4:50pm – just an hour before a different person was mugged a couple blocks away) by a slim male teen who wore a hooded jacket with fur trim as well as a black covid-style face mask.  The stalker apparently gave up and went a different direction when, after getting very close, the (likely) intended victim turned and exclaimed, “Oh! You scared me!”  The individual continued to stalk the resident for at least another block, but no robbery occurred and the intended victim arrived home safely.

All of the victims were female.  No weapons were reported in any of the incidents. Urbana Police reported that they “were targeted by an assailant(s) who demanded money while grabbing them around the neck” though no serious injuries have been reported.

In both the December 11^th stalking incident, and the December 12^th mugging, the perpetrator rode into the West Urbana neighborhood area on a bicycle, then ditched the bicycle after selecting a target.  The perpetrator then pursued on foot for multiple blocks, sometimes hiding behind objects and cutting between properties to avoid being noticed by his intended victim.  After committing the robbery on December 12^th, the perpetrator ran three blocks north to where he had stashed his escape bicycle, then left the area.

Urbana Police have apparently been assuming that all three street muggings were committed by the same person.  However, at least one mugging described in their press releases involved two perpetrators.  The December 11^th stalking incident and the December 12^th mugging incident are highly similar, with perpetrator descriptions being similar, the perpetrator’s use of a bicycle, the tactic of stalking women, and the location being within the same 1-2 block area.

But there’s more to the story.  On December 17^th around 12:32pm at the 1900 block of Autumn Ridge Dr. in Urbana, a 62 year old female resident reported a robbery attempt by a young male who had apparently hidden in the hatchback area of her car while she was at church.  The perpetrator then popped out to surprise her after she’d driven home and pulled into her garage.  There was a physical struggle which ultimately resulted in the woman yelling, “You better run or I’ll kill you!” and the perpetrator leaving empty handed.

Shortly after the car mugging incident, Urbana Police issued another press release, citing another “collaborative effort” with U of I Police which resulted in the arrest of the same individual whom they arrested and released five days prior.

It remains unclear if Urbana Police still think that the same individual was responsible for the string of three street mugging incidents (despite having been apparently exonerated by at least one witness) or if they are considering the possibility that these incidents involved multiple perpetrators.