Police: Woman Says She Lied About Seeing Suspects; Caused Massive Search Near Volo and Lakemoor

Acting on a tip via a 9-1-1 call, multiple police agencies converged to the area Route 12 and Route 120 in Volo just after 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. The locations in Volo and Lakemoor are about 5 miles south of the crime scene where slain Fox Lake Police Lt. Joe Gliniewicz was when he was checking three suspicious subjects Tuesday morning.

Police then received a frenzy of 9-1-1 calls from neighbors that thought they saw a male/black or a male/white running through open fields or neighborhoods. Police received calls from people in a subdivision just southeast of Lakemoor Golf Club.

Even police thought they made contact with a suspect at about 12:24 a.m. near a treeline. They told the suspect, “show your head.” With air support using FLIR imaging, which shows “hot spots” from the air, a hot spot was reported near a tree line. As two K-9 teams converged, police cautioned each to prevent crossfire. The helicopter support warned — from his perspective — they should be stepping on the offender. It turned out the heat causing the hot spot was some type of electrical box or transformer.

At one point, a neighbor thought they saw the suspect urinate near a silver squad car, but it was a law enforcement officer looking down a trail. Another caller reported they might have seen a figure in a model home in a subdivision. They called again and said they might have been mistaken.

Police also received a report of a suspect running through the neighborhood east of Gilmer Road and South of Belvidere Road. Police responded to each sighting.

Meanwhile police thoroughly searched the lot of boat dealership Skipper Bud’s, the Lakemoor Golf Club, Wilson Nurseries, Spruce Lake Sand & Gravel, and other locations.

One of the search helicopters left to re-fuel and complete one more sweep of the area. An Illinois State Police fixed wing aircraft also searched the area. Several police agencies, including Palatine and Carpentersville rushed to the scene with K-9 units before they were even requested.

In total almost 100 state and local law enforcement agency personnel, eleven K-9 units, and three air support units responded to create a perimeter, responded for air support, or responded to the command post near Route 120 and Route 12 to wait for specific assignments for the new search.

Then police discovered that the initial caller reporting the sighting of the suspects had lied. Police say Kristin Kiefer lied when she told police she pulled over at Route 12 and Route 120 in Volo for car trouble, and reported two men in a cornfield approached her and tried to take her car. She said the men then ran away. Kiefer later admitted to calling in a false report about 9:30 p.m., because she wanted attention from the family she worked for as a nanny.

Kiefer, of the 0-99 block of Tanwood Court in Vernon Hills, was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct for falsifying a police report. One charge is a felony.

She was transported to Lake County Jail in Waukegan, where she is being held.

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