Crime & Safety
Man Accused of 1997 Murder of Palatine Girl, 14, Pleads Not Guilty
James Paul Eaton, 36, is charged with the 1997 murder of Amber Creek, who was 14 at the time and grew up in Palatine.
A Palatine man recently charged with the 1997 murder of a 14-year-old Palatine girl pled not guilty in court Wednesday, according to the Daily Herald.
James Paul Eaton, 36, of the 1100 block of North Sterling Avenue, is accused of killing Amber Creek, whose body was found in a Wisconsin forest preserve in 1997, a few weeks after she ran away from a state juvenile home, the Daily Herald reports.
Police arrested Eaton after fingerprints submitted to the FBI in 1997 were matched to him in late February by Oklahoma authorities who were reviewing Amber's cold case, the Daily Herald reported earlier.
Following the match, police trailed Eaton for several days before picking up a cigarette he left at a local train station and using the prints on the butt to match DNA evidence left at the crime scene, according to ABC 7 Chicago. Until the database match, police had never considered Eaton as a suspect in the case.
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