Body Found in River Confirmed as Murder Victim, Coroner's Office Says

Dental records have confirmed that the body pulled from the Des Plaines River Saturday morning is that of Jeanie Parker, whose son has been arrested for her murder.

Initial indications were that it was Parker because the body had been stabbed multiple times, but it could not be said definitively until a forensic dental match could be conducted, according to the Will County Coroner's Office.

Parker, 54, of Joliet, has been missing since March 21, the day her son, 21-year-old Charles McCullum allegedly strangled and stabbed her and then dumped her body in the river near downtown Joliet.

Searches of the river had been conducted daily for weeks but the body did not surface until Saturday, when it was spotted by a fisherman in a section of the river near the Hollywood Casino.

McCullum faces charges of first-degree murder and aggravated battery. He has confessed to Joliet police that he killed his mother after getting into a violent fight in which he initially strangled her and then stabbed her multiple times before dragging her body to her car and driving it to the river.

McCullum is currently being held in the Will County jail in lieu of $5 million bond.

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