Milan Lekich / Photo from Chicago Police
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO AND JON SEIDEL
Chicago Sun-Times
The case of a South Side man found chopped up outside his garage last month is not expected to lead to any arrests, with investigators increasingly confident his live-in girlfriend acted alone before committing suicide, sources tell the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Chicago Police investigation, which is expected to wrap up in a matter of days, hasn’t uncovered what may have prompted Teresa Jarding to kill Milan Lekich and store his body near the home they shared in the Hegewisch neighborhood, the sources said this week.
The circumstances surrounding the case continue to baffle close friends and neighbors of Lekich, a well-liked electrician who enjoyed riding his touring Harley Davidson motorcycle.
Lekich’s remains were found Oct. 5 outside his garage in the 13300 block of South Avenue M — after he’d been missing for more than a year. Investigators later determined that he’d been shot to death.
Authorities had wanted to question Jarding, 49, about Lekich’s disappearance. But when they finally made contact with her in late September at a home she owned in tiny Fowler, Ind., she was near death with a gun by her side.
Jarding was taken to a nearby hospital, where she died the next day. On Oct. 15, authorities revealed that Jarding had committed suicide by “acute mixed-drug toxicity.”
The mystery deepened when investigators found the remains of Jarding’s mother’s body at the Fowler home. Investigators later said that Nena Metoyer, 68, died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators are still awaiting the results of firearms testing in the Metoyer and Lekich murders.