The Horrific Death Of Susan Brady | Haunted Rockford

Originally published in The Rock River Times.

Susan Brady and Cecilia Burns were very excited. They had made plans for Susan to go over to Cecilia’s house after school. It was December 20, 1965, and it was chilly, so the girls bundled up before leaving the school.

They left the school around 3:15 p.m. and walked to Cecilia’s house on Irving Avenue. The time passed all too quickly and soon it was time for Susan to go home for dinner. Cecilia offered to walk part of the way with Susan since it got dark so quickly at that time of the year. They walked to the intersection of School Street and Albert Avenue together before going their separate ways at 5:45 p.m. Susan still had quite a walk ahead of her to reach her house at 703 N. Day Avenue. Cecilia was frightened by strange noises on the way home and looked back several times to check on Susan’s progress. She would be the last person to see Susan Brady alive.

Susan’s mother, Norma, grew concerned as the sky darkened and the day turned into evening. Susan was always home by dinner. After James came home from work, they looked for her on foot, following the route that Susan would have taken home. They spoke to Cecilia, who told them she left Susan at the intersection of Albert Avenue and School Street. As the evening grew later, they searched with their car. Two hours after they started searching, they decided to call the police. James explained later that he didn’t want to involve the police too early. The family really felt Susie would walk in the door any second. But of course, she didn’t.

The next day there was still no sign of Susie, and more people got involved in the search. On December 22, the search became a full-blown effort. There were men with dogs looking and others on foot that were divided into teams of five to six men accompanied by a police officer. Police Sergeant Robert Selgren gave the two hundred people that volunteered their last-minute instructions.

There were also ten airplanes taking part in the search under the supervision of Captain H. W. Lundberg. They were in the air looking for anything that should be checked out by the ground crew.

Susan’s father and two older brothers helped in the search. Norma sat in their beautiful home waiting for some word that Susan had been found, safe and sound. The house had been decorated for Christmas, and they plugged in the tree every night so the house would be all lit when Susan came home.

As the massive search was taking place, Susan’s school, St. Patrick’s held a special prayer service and over six hundred students attended. Susan was in Sister Leora’s sixth grade class and the day’s newspapers had quotes from the teacher and several of Susie’s classmates describing her. Sister Leora said that Susie was a good student, quiet, conscientious, and helpful to her fellow classmates. Susan’s friends said she was fun, friendly and that she loved to dance to her favorite group, the Beatles.

On Christmas Eve, the Brady family asked for a special Christmas wish. “Our only request is that everyone pray for her safe return and keep looking in their yards to see if they can find her.” James Brady was quoted in the paper. They also thanked the community for the great response. Many people helped by taking part in the search, answering the telephone, bringing food for the family and volunteers, and assisting with the other Brady children. The whole community seemed determined to find this little girl.

There was a $2,500 reward offered for information leading to the safe return of Susan by Register-Republic and the Rockford Morning Star. Other people gave money toward the reward, including a number of children. Later, another $1,000.00 was added to the reward by the Chamber of Commerce.

The Christmas tree at the Brady house still stood with the lights twinkling every night even through the middle of January. James Brady, Susan’s father, said, “We still are hoping to have our family’s Christmas celebration.” He went on to say the family is back to normal on the outside returning to work and school. But underneath, they still jumped every time they heard a car pull into the driveway or the phone rang.

Around the middle of January, claims from several young girls came to the police’s attention. One girl said that on the day that Susan went missing, December 20, 1965, she was walking just a few blocks from where Susan was last seen. The twelve-year-old little girl was walking home on the 1300 block of Blaisdell Street around 5:30 p.m. A man driving a 1961 green Cadillac pulled over to the side of the road and asked the girl if she wanted a ride. The girl refused and turned the corner and walked quickly away. The man drove away in the same direction where Susan was walking home. Police asked for information from anyone who might have seen the car, or the man described by the second little girl.

The Bradys were very touched by how wonderful and compassionate people had been to them. Cards, telegrams, and well wishes arrived at their house every day. These cards were not just from Rockford but from all over the country.

That Valentine’s Day of 1966 started out as a bright, crisp day but quickly turned dark as the family finally learned what happened to their beautiful, young daughter. The family’s hopes for reuniting with Susan were completely smashed. James and Norma were told that a man, Russell Charles Dewey, twenty-five years old, surrendered to FBI agents in California after returning from a flight to Mexico.

The police became suspicious of Dewey when reports by the little girls of a man in a 1961 Cadillac stopping them to offer a ride home. Dewey owned such a car until January 4 when he sold the car to Genrich and Harris Auto Sales. A day later, he quit his job and left for San Diego.

During questioning, Dewey stated that he was driving on School Street around a quarter to six in the evening when little Susie ran right out in front of his car near St. Patrick’s Church’s driveway. Dewey was unable to stop and struck her with his car.

Dewey scooped Susan up and placed her in the front seat on his trench coat to rush to Rockford Memorial Hospital to get her medical treatment. He drove as fast as he could but when he reached the entrance, the little girl was dead. He checked her heartbeat and pulse, but it was no use, she was already gone. Dewey became frightened, he said, because he had no insurance and was afraid to be sued.

Later that same day, Rockford Police Chief Delbert Peterson shared the sad news of Susie’s death and Dewey’s arrest for the crime at a press conference. Peterson explained to reporters that Dewey had admitted killing Susan but stated that it was an accident. State’s Attorney William Nash then spoke to describe some of the clues that were followed to solve Susan’s murder.

The men described the search for the car reported by the little girl. Following this lead, they came upon Dewey’s name for the first time. Their suspicions grew when they found out he had sold the car, quit his job, and then left town after Susan’s disappearance. The police involved the FBI to hunt Dewey down while they started to look for evidence here in Rockford. The police found out that Dewey had moved in with Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Carruthers, his grandparents, during the summer of 1965.

The police searched the Carruthers home after the reports from the attempted kidnap of the little girl on the day Susie disappeared. The search led to finding the incinerator designed from a 50-gallon drum. They also found some suspicious matter in the ashes at the bottom of the can that appeared to be human bone. The police sent that to the FBI lab in Washington, D.C. It would eventually come back as being bone from a child eight to twelve years old. A fugitive warrant was issued for Dewey.

Dewey admitted he was staying at the Carruthers house during December while his grandparents were in Florida. This is where he decided to take Susie after he realized she was dead. He told the police that he panicked after he realized that Susan was dead, and he drove to his grandparents’ house on West State Street near Meridian. It was here that he jammed Susan’s little body, her bookbag, and his trench coat into a 50-gallon incinerator. He used gasoline to set the items on fire. Dewey was shocked to see that even after hours of burning there were some larger pieces of bone that survived the fire. Dewey disposed of them in the Winnebago County landfill located next to the J.L. Case Plant w here he worked.

The police didn’t believe Dewey’s story of an accident. They felt that he had abducted little Susan, taken her to the garage behind his home where he killed her with a sledgehammer.

Dewey was very concerned about returning to Rockford because he didn’t think he would get a fair trial there. Assistant State’s Attorney Alfred Cowan flew out to San Diego to serve the warrant for Dewey’s arrest for the murder of Susan. Dewey was returned to Rockford in March. His attorney argued for a change of venue, and it was finally decided that the trial would be held in Sycamore.

On February 22, 1966, St. Patrick’s Church held a memorial service for Susan. Hundreds of families, friends, classmates, and members of the Rockford community came together to pay their last respects for the little girl so many had searched and prayed they would be returned safe and sound. Many who attended spoke of being impressed with the inspirational way the Brady family conducted themselves. The Brady family asked the community for fair treatment of the man who killed their daughter.

The trial of Russell Dewey began on August 8, 1966, in Sycamore, Illinois. Attorney Roy S. Lasswell was Dewey’s defense Attorney and State’s Attorney William Nash was assisted by the Assistant State’s Attorney, Alfred W. Cowan representing the State of Illinois. Circuit Judge Charles G. Seidel presided over the trial.

Dr. J. Lawrence, physical anthropologist at the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C. testified about the largest bone found in the incinerator as being “a vertebra from an immature person”. He also testified that the other bone fragments found came from a child eight to twelve years old.

Four little girls also testified during the trial and told the jury how they had been approached by a man in a green 1961 Cadillac. When asked if they could identify the man, all four did not hesitate as they pointed to Dewey sitting at the defense table.

Norma Brady, Susan’s mother, was the last of the thirty-three witnesses called by State’s Attorney William Nash. Her sorrow was hard to witness and many in the court had tears in their eyes when she stepped from the stand. The defense called thirteen witnesses, and Dewey was the last to testify for the defense.

On August 22, the Dekalb County jury consisting of three men and three women, deliberated three hours and forty-seven minutes. Judge Seidel warned that he would tolerate no outburst as the verdict was read. The air was thick with tension as everyone waited to hear the verdict.

Russell Dewey was found guilty of the murder of eleven-year-old Susan Brady. He showed no emotion but his first wife, Sandra, was in the courtroom and she began to cry. Dewey patted her arm as if to comfort her. His mother and grandparents were also in the courtroom and were obviously shaken by the verdict.

Dewey apparently did his time without any further incidents and news came in February of 1987 that Dewey would be released in April 1987. There were a lot of people that were angered by the release. Dewey was originally sentenced to twenty to fifty years, but he was released after serving twenty.

Susan’s memory was honored by the opening of the Susan Brady Memorial Library at St. Patrick’s Elementary School. The Brady’s dedicated the money that had been donated by community members, students, and the Chamber of Commerce for the project.

On the anniversary of Susan’s twentieth birthday, St. Patrick’s Church held a special Memorial Mass in her name. Susan and her family are still remembered by many in the city of Rockford and 2025 will mark the sixtieth anniversary of her death. The little girl that disappeared so long ago joined this community together in a way that nothing had before. Her death touched all in the community and some would say that it changed Rockford forever.