DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin announced today Judge Daniel Guerin has found a former Bartlett man guilty but mentally ill in the stabbing death of his mother in 2019. Judge Guerin rendered his verdict this afternoon against Edward Mitzelfeld, 69 (d.o.b. 11/27/1954) formerly of the 700 block of Bryn Mawr Avenue, following a seven-day-long bench trial that concluded on March 22, 2024. On May 31, 2019, facing five counts of First-Degree Murder, Mitzelfeld appeared in Bond Court where bond was set at $5 million with 10% to apply. He has remained in custody at the DuPage County Jail since that time.
On May 29, 2019, at approximately 5:23 p.m., officers with the Bartlett Police Department responded to a call at the home Mitzelfeld shared with his ninety-three-year-old mother, Frances Kelly. Upon their arrival, officers encountered Mitzelfeld in the front yard of the house with his hands raised. After entering the home, officers found Kelly lying face down on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood. Following an investigation into the murder, it was determined that Mitzelfeld and Kelly were in the kitchen together when Mitzelfeld stabbed Kelly numerous times in the back with a kitchen knife leaving stab wounds that severed her aorta and entered her lungs. After the murder, Mitzelfeld called 911.
“This is a tragic case that has surely taken a tremendous toll on Frances’ and Edward’s entire family,” Berlin said. “It is my sincerest hope that with the trial now behind them, Frances’ surviving family and friends will somehow be able to gain some measure of closure on this horrible chapter in their lives and remember Frances for how she lived and not how she died. I thank the trial team of Assistant State’s Attorneys Rob Willis, Nicole Wilkes-English and Alyssa Rabulinski for their work in holding Mr. Mitzelfeld responsible for his actions in this very sad case.”
Mitzelfeld’s next court appearance is scheduled for May 10, 2024, for post-trial motions.
