Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Rockford, IL: Man held in girlfriend's slaying dies of cancer in jail

ROCKFORD — A man being held in the Winnebago County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder has died.

Dennis L. VanHauen died Feb. 1 in the jail under hospice care, Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said today. An autopsy showed he died from colon cancer.

VanHauen was arrested in connection to the 2008 death of his live-in girlfriend, Stacy Dominguez, 32.

Authorities believe Dominguez died the first week of September. However, her body was not found until Sept. 13 by the couple’s neighbor and a dog in the 2900 block of 24th Street.

Autopsy results showed Dominguez died from blunt trauma to the head.

Police believe Dominguez was killed at her residence in the 2600 block of Reed Avenue, and her body was left in a wooded area about a block away from the couple’s Reed Avenue white trailer home. Z

Police arrested VanHauen within 12 hours of the discovery of Dominguez. At the time, Deputy Chief Greg Lindmark called the homicide “domestic-related” and credited the rapid arrest to the initial police work of the first-arriving officers, detectives and neighbors.

“The neighbors’ involvement was good,” he said. “They provided information in pointing the officers and detectives back to the possible address of occurrence.”

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