I want to address a question that many of you may be asking. Why do we need to pay attention to the 28 year old cold case of my father and Patricia Freeman’s murder in June of 1981? First, this seems to be a case that should have been resolved 26 or 27 years ago. That means that the family and friends of Ron Scharff and Patricia Freeman may have suffered needlessly for many years. The degree of suffering, of course, varies from person to person but all victims have been denied closure for their loss.

Since the case was reopened in September of 2008 it is unclear if we are on track or not to get this closure. I was in contact with NBC News Chicago in September and we agreed to a television interview at the beginning of November. We did the interview as scheduled but NBC was very interested in getting a statement about the case from the McHenry County Sheriff’s

department. The Sheriff’s department requested that we delay the airing of the story for two weeks so that they could prepare a statement and possibly an arrest. NBC complied. At the end of the first two week delay, the Sheriff’s department requested an additional two weeks to prepare a statement and again NBC honored their request. Finally, NBC aired the interview in December with a statement from the Under Sheriff stating that they expected to make an arrest and finally close this case.

It is now almost May of 2009 and no arrests have been made. We have confirmed with the Sheriff’s department that the number of investigators on the case has gone from 20 in December of 2008 to only two. We have not received any updates about progress on the case during the last three months. Needless to say, this concerns both my family and the members of the Freeman family. We were victimized back in 1981 by the death of our loved ones. It appears we were victimized a second time by going 27 years without the case being resolved when the evidence seemed to point strongly to one man – Larry Neumann.

All we are asking is that we don’t become victims a third time.

We have two very simple goals that we would like to accomplish this year:

• We would like Larry Neumann named officially as the killer of my father and Patricia Freeman.
• We would like to know why this case was not solved 26 or 27 years ago when the evidence seems so compelling.

I get asked a lot by people like you about how they can help. The best thing you can do is educate yourself and your friends on the facts we have around the case. Decide for yourself whether they make sense. Then help us keep it visible so that we can achieve the two very simple goals listed above.

We are focused on making all of the information we have about the case available to you. There are currently two places we are keeping updated. The first is the McHenry County 1981 Facebook Group, where you can join and help us show the number of people who really care about the resolution of this case. We also have a web site, https://www.mchenrycounty1981.com, where we are making all of the information available to those not interested in joining Facebook. You will also be able to subscribe to updates via Twitter. In the coming weeks, I will begin posting additional details around my memories at the time of the murders, as well as updates on the status of the case and suggestions on how you can help.

Until then, the best thing you can do to help is to educate yourself. Read the material we have available. Tell your friends. Post links to the case where you can to educate others. Help my family and the Freeman family by making sure the case does not fall out of the public eye again.

Thank you all for your support – and we’ll be talking soon.

Paul