Is Wendy Gessing dead or alive? Crest Hill, Joliet Mystery 3 years old

CREST HILL – Although Crest Hill police have conducted several extensive searches along Route 6 near Rockdale over the past year for the skeletal remains of Wendy Gessing’s body, her case remains an unsolved mystery three years later.

Wednesday marked the third anniversary of the 50-year-old Gessing disappearing from the scene and never being seen or heard from by anyone again.

On June 12, 2021, the Crest Hill woman was working at her longtime place of employment, the Pizzas By Marchelloni pickup and delivery restaurant on North Raynor Avenue in Crest Hill. Her longtime friend and Pizzas By Marchelloni owner, Scott Harris, had worked there earlier that day.

In a phone interview this week, Harris told Joliet Patch that his longtime friend’s disappearance continues to personally affect him and many other people, including her family.

Harris said he struggled with whether to grieve, knowing he hasn’t seen or heard from Wendy in three years, or whether to hold on to hope that she is alive out there somewhere.

“Nobody ever saw her again after that Saturday night,” Harris told Joliet Patch. “It’s no easier to understand than it was three years ago.”

“I still have some of her clothes,” Harris noted this week. “I think the most important thing is we just want to know. It’s just hard. When you don’t know if someone has died and you don’t know, it’s still not easy and (her son) Josh and her family still don’t have closure. And again, it’s been three years.”

Harris and Gessing lived together for several years, a few blocks from their Pizzas By Marchelloni, where they both worked. Harris said he was still undecided about donating the rest of her clothes, which she kept in her home.

“Are you doing it? But how do you know?” he asked. “You don’t know.”

Harris said he has not spoken to Crest Hill police since last November, when they organized their most recent search along Route 6 in Rockdale.

This search, like the previous ones, was unsuccessful.

“I think they worked hard on it in the beginning, yes,” Harris said.

When asked if he hoped Crest Hill police would continue to vigilantly pursue other leads and search locations, Harris replied, “I hope so for everyone’s sake, but it’s been three years. I just don’t know. I haven’t been told anything. I don’t know if they’re still working on it.”

To date, Crest Hill Police, in conjunction with the Will County Sheriff’s Office CSI Unit, have continued to impound the Honda CRV owned by Harris and Gessing.

“I guess there’s a reason they’re keeping it,” Harris said this week.

The gray Honda CRV was discovered on Joliet’s near west side, in the 400 block of Buell Avenue, across from the home of former Joliet newspaper editor Molly Zelko, who disappeared from her driveway late one night in September 1957 and remains Joliet’s greatest mystery.

This week, Harris told Joliet Patch he still doesn’t know if police believe Wendy drove herself into the Buell Avenue neighborhood in Joliet and got into danger there, or if something happened to her somewhere else and her Honda CRV was driven back to Buell Avenue by someone else to be abandoned.

To further deepen the mystery surrounding the missing person, Gessing’s cell phone was found somewhere in Romeoville along Taylor Road.

During the early weeks of the missing person case, Crest Hill police worked with Joliet police to investigate a possible sighting of Gessing at the Motel 6 on McDonough Street in Joliet.

Harris told Patch this week, however, that he doesn’t believe that lead was ever confirmed. He said the woman on the Motel 6 security camera appeared to be much younger than Gessing.

On Wednesday morning, Joliet Patch interviewed Crest Hill Police Officer Ed Clark.

The chief admitted that after three years there was no significant news about his department’s efforts to find Gessing.

Clark said he did not want to speculate on whether Gessing was alive or dead, and he would not say whether he thought her disappearance was a likely homicide or something else.

“That has yet to be decided,” Clark replied on Wednesday. “And we don’t want to jump to conclusions.”

Like all of her bank accounts and financial records, Gessing’s Facebook page has remained inactive since her disappearance in 2021.

The introduction on her Facebook page read: “Happy Sober Engaged Mama.”

For the past three years, Clark has been assigned to investigator Conor Sweeney’s case.

“We have conducted multiple searches,” Clark emphasized. “The case is still open and active. I have nothing specific to add at this time. Of course, anonymous tips are welcome and can be directed to Will County CrimeStoppers. We are still investigating and it is still an open investigation. No one in the world wants to solve this case more than our investigators.”

Clark also urged anyone with tips or helpful information to contact Crest Hill Police Detective Sweeney at 815-741-5115.

Clark said he could not comment on whether specific people have been ruled out as suspects in connection with her disappearance. “The family has cooperated with the investigation,” he replied.

When asked if this collaboration includes both Harris and Gessing’s son Josh, who is in his twenties, Clark answered yes.

Harris had previously told Joliet Patch that after finishing his shift as a manager at his pizzeria on Saturday afternoon on June 12, 2021, he later went to the Lockport Moose Club for a social gathering. He said he texted Wendy late Saturday night after she didn’t come home from work and his call went to her voicemail.

She never answered his phone or texted him back with information about her whereabouts.

In retrospect, Harris said this week, he wished one of his colleagues had called and pointed out that Gessing had not returned to work that Saturday night to close her restaurant.

According to Harris, one of his nieces was at the pizzeria and remembered seeing Gessing at Pizzas By Marchelloni around 6 p.m.

In 2021, Harris told Patch that Gessing had informed John, one of her colleagues at Pizzas By Marchelloni, that she wanted to pick someone up.

Gessing also worked at several food distribution sites in the area and often donated clothing and other items to help those in need. Harris said Gessing allegedly gave a ride to someone who may have been living in a halfway house.

“John said she planned to be back in a few minutes,” Harris told Patch in 2021.

That night, there was very little staff at the pizzeria, except for Gessing, who was the night manager. A young man from college was also working there, along with John, who was in his 60s. Incidentally, according to Harris, John died a few months later from a medical problem.

“They were just friends,” Harris said of Gessing and John. “Sometimes she would drive John home. From what I’m told, they shut him out.”

In an interview this week, Harris said he does not believe any of his pizza employees had anything to do with her disappearance.

However, Harris said he wished someone had notified him sooner because then the police investigation into the missing person report could have begun much sooner.

“Nobody from the store called me,” he told Patch.