On June 14, 2001, Paul Frederick Runge, 31, was charged in Chicago with murdering and sexually assaulting six women and a 10-year-old girl in a string of sex attacks in Cook County and DuPage County between 1995 and 1997. The suspect, Paul Frederick Runge, has been behind bars since 1997, when he was arrested for a parole violation. Police said Runge has confessed to all seven killings and was linked to two of the crimes through DNA.
The victims were bludgeoned to death or strangled -- in most cases after he went to homes that had posted for-sale signs for various things, police said. Other victims were women who had responded to his help-wanted ads for someone to clean his home or merely acquaintances. "Paul Runge is our worst nightmare," Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine. "He conned his way into women's homes or duped them into trusting him. He then raped and murdered them." Runge had been paroled in 1994 for the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl in 1987.
Runge is accused in the January 1995 killing of Stacey Frobel, 25, whose body was found in southern Wisconsin and Illinois. Frobel, the mother of a 6-year-old boy, was a friend of Runge's former wife. Six months later, Runge allegedly killed the two Hanover Park women, sisters Dzeneta and Ameal Pasanbegovic, 22 and 20, respectively. Both were recent immigrants from Bosnia who Runge allegedly lured to his home with the promise of house cleaning jobs. After allegedly killing them, Runge dismembered them in a bathtub and dumped their remains in trash bins. Runge also is accused of the 1997 deaths of Dorota Dziubak, 30, who he killed after she advertised her Northwest Side house for sale; Yolanda Gutierrez, 35, and her 10-year-old daughter; and Kazimiera Paruch, 43, of Chicago, were killed after they advertised their condominium for sale.
On August 9 Paul Runge pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting and killing four women and a 10-year-old girl in Cook County. Runge previously pleaded not guilty in DuPage County to murder charges in the deaths of two Hanover Park sisters. Prosecutors said that Runge, 31, confessed to the slayings.