A 16-year-old boy helped beat 64-year-old Cary “Mike” Silverstein to death in December, then threw the body in a Dumpster in the West Ridge neighborhood on the North Side, according to prosecutors.
Shawndre Lehman, now 17, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of 64-year-old Cary “Mike” Silverstein, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. Lehman was 16 at the time of the murder.
Silverstein hosted a birthday party at his apartment in the 6500 block of North Hoyne about 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10, 2015, prosecutors said at Lehman’s bond hearing Wednesday.
The victim got into an argument after saying derogatory things to the other person’s girlfriend, prosecutors said. That person punched Silverstein in the face, then left the apartment to cool off.
He later returned, and soon after, Lehman and another person arrived at the party, prosecutors said. Lehman and the two others began arguing with Silverstein, then punched, kicked and struck him multiple times with a metal frying pan.
They eventually beat him to death, then made a plan to his dispose of his body, prosecutors said.
The girlfriend cleaned up Silverstein’s blood with water and bleach, and washed the frying pan, prosecutors said. Lehman and the two others took off Silverstein’s clothes, tried to wash his body in the bathroom, and placed his body in two large garbage bags which they taped together.
Lehman then took the body and put it in a nearby Dumpster, while the other two acted as lookouts, prosecutors said.
As of Wednesday, Silverstein’s body has not been recovered, prosecutors said.
Flood Waste Company, which handles trash collection in the neighborhood, said garbage from bins in the area are initially taken to a transfer station in Maywood. From there, it would have been taken to a landfill in either Rochelle or Rockford. Both landfills handle millions of pounds of garbage every day.
Silverstein’s family filed a missing person report on Dec. 16. He had previously talked to his sister almost daily, prosecutors said. She last spoke to him the day of the murder.
Detectives examined Silverstein’s apartment for blood, and traces were found in the kitchen and bathroom, prosecutors said. Several people had been living with Silverstein prior to his disappearance, and one of them implicated Lehman and the three others in his murder.
Lehman, of the 500 block of North Lockwood, was arrested Monday and confessed to the murder and to dumping the body, prosecutors said.
The other three have not been charged.
Judge Donald Panarese ordered Lehman held on a $1 million bond Wednesday.