2011 September 14 News Article – Charges: Woman lured mother-in-law with ruse, killed her in parking lot
By Kevin Barlow | [email protected] | Posted: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 8:38 am
Misook Wang (McLean County Sheriff’s Department)
BLOOMINGTON — A Bloomington woman was charged Wednesday with strangling her mother-in-law in a Bloomington parking lot and burying her body in the Des Plaines Fish and Wildlife Park.
Misook Wang, 45, is charged with three counts of murder and one count of concealment of the homicidal death of Wenlan “Linda” Tyda, 70, of Crest Hill, located near Joliet. She appeared in McLean County Circuit Court on Wednesday and remains in McLean County jail in lieu of posting $100,000.
First Assistant State’s Attorney Jane Foster said Wang and her husband were having marital problems. After a verbal confrontation with Tyda in Crest Hill, Wang made travel arrangements for her husband to be out of town Sept. 4 through 6, Foster said.
Wang then paid $20 to an employee of a Twin City restaurant to call Tyda and offer her money to transport a client from Bloomington to a Chinese school in Chicago on Sept. 5, Foster said.
After Tyda was reported missing the following day, Crest Hill police checked her cell phone records that indicated she had placed a call while in Bloomington.
Police in Bloomington then began interviewing family members, including Wang.
During an interview with Bloomington police, detectives noticed several injuries to Wang’s arms and legs, according to a probable cause statement Foster read in court. A search warrant was issued for Wang’s home and business, Kim’s Sewing and Accessories. During that search, a garbage bag containing Tyda’s clothes and identification was discovered in a trash bin outside Wang’s business, Foster said.
Foster said Tyda and Wang had an argument in a parking lot near Wang’s business and again outside Wang’s business in the 2400 block of East Washington Street. The argument turned physical at some point, and Tyda was killed at Wang’s business, Foster said.
“The defendant admitted that she used both hands to apply pressure to the victim’s neck and choked the victim,” Foster said.
Tyda eventually died as a result of the struggle, authorities said.
Foster said Wang then hid Tyda’s body inside the business and drove her mother-in-law’s vehicle to Chicago, leaving it at an airport. She took a bus back to Bloomington and put the body into a plastic storage container, Foster said.
Wang left the container in the business all day on Sept. 6, said Foster, and that evening, drove to the Des Plaines state park and buried the body, Foster said.
After being confronted with the evidence, Wang was taken to the park where she led investigators to the body on Tuesday, authorities said.
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