A man was taken into custody on Tuesday for the murder of a bar owner in Illinois.
Courtney Drysdale was the owner of The Line, a bar in the rural town of Momence just a few hundred feet from the Illinois-Indiana state line. She was shot and killed by an alleged robber as she was opening up the bar.
On the following day, deputies identified and arrested a suspect in the murder: 47-year-old Julius E. Burkes Jr. of Hammond, Indiana. He was arrested outside his home and has been held in Indiana awaiting extradition.
At around 11 a.m. on Monday, Drysdale was in the process of opening up the bar when Burkes entered the establishment; she was alone at the time. He allegedly pointed a gun at her and demanded money from the cash register.
Downey said that Drysdale gave him the money, but Burkes shot her twice in the torso, “execution style.”
The suspect also attempted to remove a security camera from the wall, but deputies were able to recover footage from the security system. Downey had no details as to why the suspect chose that bar.
Downey said that the victim was “deeply loved, not only by her family and young daughter but also by the many patrons and friends whose lives she touched. This senseless act of violence has profoundly impacted our community.”
The victim of that break-in issued a statement through her lawyer expressing her condolences to Drysdale’s family.
“My deepest condolences go out to Courtney’s daughter and family following their tragic loss. I did my best to bring to light to the authorities and the courts on a number of occasions of who Julius was, but it wasn’t until just recently were they able to file criminal charges against him for entering my home without permission. Hopefully there will be a quick resolution to my case here in Indiana so he can be transferred to Illinois to face the consequences for what he did to Courtney.”
Burkes has an extensive criminal record dating back to 1994, when he was just 15 years old. In 1995, he was sentenced to 37 years in prison for his role in a murder on the Far South Side of Chicago. He served less than half his sentence. In 2012, he was arrested for failing to register as a convicted murderer. He pled guilty to a battery charge in 2014 and served 12 months of supervised release. He also had a protection order filed against him in 2017 for alleged stalking. Between 2014 and 2019, 11 traffic cases were filed against him.
