Crime & Safety
Story of Murdered Joliet Nurse to Be Featured on TV Show
Neighbor Vincent Trevizo was convicted in 2003 of strangling Plut and setting fire to her townhouse to conceal the homicide.
The Investigation Discovery (ID) network will feature a murder that rocked Kendall County more than a decade ago on Tuesday night.
The June 4 episode of "Nightmare Next Door" will revisit the death of Melissa Plut, a 28-year-old Edward Hospital nurse murdered in her Joliet townhouse in 2000.
On Sept. 3, 2000, Plut returned from a wedding in Tinley Park, stopping at a neighbor's home for drinks before heading home. Plut's body was discovered the next morning by Joliet firefighters responding to a fire at her duplex. She had been beaten and strangled.
Her neighbor, Vincent Trevizo, was convicted of her murder in 2003 and is serving a 45-year prison sentence. Trevizo was sentenced to 35 years for Plut's death, and 10 years for setting fire to her townhome unit — which was adjacent to the unit he shared with his wife and young son — to conceal the crime.
Titled "Where There's Smoke," the "Nightmare Next Door" special will focus on an anonymous 911 call that led police to investigate Trevizo. According to the episode description:
Joliet, Illinois fire fighters are shocked to find 28-year-old Melissa Plut strangled to death when they respond to a fire in her duplex. Police search the nurse’s love life with no luck until a 9-1-1 call unmasks her killer hiding in plain sight.
The episode will air at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tuesday, and again at 4 p.m. Sunday, June 9.
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