On May 20, 1988, a single day of fires and violence moved through the lakeside suburbs north of Chicago, from Highland Park to Winnetka. By early afternoon a schoolboy named Nicholas was dead, five other children had been wounded, and a young man had been hurt in a second Winnetka neighborhood a few blocks away. Police attributed all of it to Laurie Dann, a 30-year-old woman from Glencoe who had also lived in Highland Park and had spent much of her adult life moving between North Shore suburbs and college towns. She died by suicide in Winnetka before the day was out. No charge was ever filed against her, and no court ever heard the evidence.
Dann grew up on the North Shore. She graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka in 1975, went on to Drake University in Iowa and then transferred to the University of Arizona, where she studied toward becoming a teacher. People who knew her in those years later described behavior they found strange, including signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
By the late 1980s she was in treatment. She had an extensive history of mental illness and had been treated for severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. A psychiatrist who was seeing her told police, before May 1988, that he did not believe she was a danger to herself or to anyone else. For weeks before May 20, those around her saw odd, dangerous and violent behavior.
For a time she worked as a babysitter for North Shore families. One of those families lived in Winnetka, and she had cared for their children.
The day began with fires. One was set in Highland Park and quickly put out, and another was set soon after ten in the Winnetka residence of the family she had babysat for. No one was hurt in either.
In the late morning, in the Hubbard Woods neighborhood of Winnetka, six children were wounded, and one of them died. The others survived, among them a boy who spent months recovering.
Soon afterward a 20-year-old man was wounded in a residence a few blocks away. He reached a hospital and recovered. That afternoon, in the same residence, Dann died by suicide.
Police reconstructed the day and attributed to her both fires as well as the deaths and injuries in Winnetka. They also learned of her years of psychiatric treatment and of the weeks of troubling behavior that had come before May 20.
There were no charges. Dann died within hours of the events police attributed to her. No indictment was sought, no grand jury heard evidence, and no court made any finding about her responsibility or her state of mind. The account police gave was never tested by cross-examination or weighed by a jury, and in law she was never convicted of anything.
Why Dann acted as she did on May 20 was never established. Her mental state was never determined by any court. Her treating psychiatrist's view, given to police before May 1988, that she was not a danger to herself or others, was overtaken by the events of a single day, and no court ever examined her care. Accounts also differ on how many people were wounded that day.
1975: Laurie Dann graduates from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois.
Late 1970s: She attends Drake University in Iowa and the University of Arizona.
May 20, 1988, morning: A fire is set in Highland Park and quickly put out.
May 20, 1988, soon after 10 a.m.: A fire is set in a Winnetka family's residence; no one is hurt.
May 20, 1988, late morning: Six children are wounded in Winnetka; one of them dies.
May 20, 1988, midday: A 20-year-old man is wounded in a second Winnetka residence; he recovers.
May 20, 1988, afternoon: Dann dies by suicide in Winnetka. No charge is ever filed.