Man who raped and killed three-year-old girl dies mysteriously in prison

11 December 2023 , 13:47

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The twisted killer let his victim's father go to prison for nearly a year without confessing (Image: ABC7)

A man who sexually assaulted and murdered a toddler from Illinois has died in prison.

Scott Eby, 52, confessed to the killing of Riley Fox at just three years old after her body was found in a creek near her home in 2004. At the time, the case made headlines across the US - with young Riley’s father having been wrongfully accused of the evil crime. Eby was an inmate at Menard Correctional Center at the time of his death on Thursday (December 7), according to an online inmate notification system.

Kevin Fox, Riley’s father, had spent eight months in jail before DNA evidence cleared the grieving father from any wrongdoing in murdering his daughter. Investigators claimed Fox - who died earlier this year in an Arkansas car crash - had confessed to accidentally killing Riley before attempting to make it look like a kidnapping.

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Young Riley Fox was just three years old when she was murdered in cold blood (ABC7)

But in 2010, Fox was entirely exonerated when Eby confessed to kidnapping Riley from her home in Wilmington, around 60 miles from Chicago. By then a convicted sex offender, Fox admitted to abducting Riley before sexually assaulting her, stuffing her in his car boot and drowning her in a creek.

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Eby did not hand himself in, rather the authorities were led to him after DNA collected from the crime scene - such as a pair of his shoes pulled from the water - was found along with various other clues. He wasn’t charged until after someone tipped off FBI agents who had begun reinvestigating the case.

Kevin Fox spent 8 months in prison for Scott Eby's horrific crimes (ABC7)

During Kevin Fox’s witness impact statement at Eby’s sentencing in 2010, he said to the murderer: "I still can't believe that people thought I was the monster in front of me now. You deserve everything that is handed to you. From the time you killed Riley… I changed for the worst. I built up a lot of depression, and that depression turned to hate, which affected a lot of people in my life."

Well known lawyer and star in the second season of Netflix documentary Making a Murderer, Kathleen Zellner, had been Riley Fox’s attorney when he was accused. In a statement on Sunday, Zellner described Eby’s death as “some measure of justice for Riley” adding that she hopes he “rots in hell”, according to MailOnline.

Riley was murdered in this Illinois creek (ABC7)

“Finally justice for Riley!” she wrote. “It is ironic that Kevin Fox and Scott Eby both died in 2023. Kevin's death was a terrible tragedy for him and his family. He was a kind, gentle man who loved his children above all else.” A jury awarded $15.5 million to Kevin and Melissa Fox in a civil suit for false arrest and malicious prosecution - but the award was later reduced to $8 million in damages.

There has been as yet no confirmation on the circumstances of Eby’s death, with the WIll County State’s Attorney’s Office not offering any further details beyond the fact the paedophile murderer had passed away.

Alex Croft