Man Guilty of Killing Hostage He Buried Alive in Ransom Bid

KANKAKEE, Ill. — A jury convicted a 31-year-old man of kidnaping and murder Monday in the death of a prominent businessman who was buried alive in a box and suffocated in a botched $1-million ransom attempt.

Daniel Edwards of Bourbonnais had pleaded innocent to three counts of murder and 10 charges of aggravated kidnaping in the death of Stephen Small. The jury took about an hour to convict Edwards on all counts.

Edwards stood quietly when the verdict was read, showing no emotion.

Prosecutors then asked that Edwards be sentenced to death. The jury, after another brief round of deliberations, decided the case meets the criteria for the death penalty and will reconvene Wednesday to weigh whether to impose it.

Edwards’ live-in girlfriend, Nancy D. Rish, 26, also was charged in the scheme and awaits trial.

Small was the great-grandson of former Illinois Gov. Len Small, and his family had major media holdings. He was vice president of Mid America Media, a group that owned radio and cable television stations until it was sold in 1986.

Small, 40, was abducted Sept. 2, 1987, and his body was found two days later buried in a box under 3 feet of sand in a rural area about 13 miles southeast of Kankakee. The box had been equipped with a jug of water, candy bars, an unconnected battery-powered light and an air pipe.

The kidnapers attempted to extort $1 million from Small’s family and had him make tape recordings telling his wife, Nancy, to get the money. But the family never received clear instructions for delivery of the ransom and Small suffocated before he could be found.

Edwards could not afford to have Stephen Small live, Frank Nowicki of the state attorney general’s office told jurors. “Stephen Small never had a chance. From the moment he put him in that box, he knew he would die,” Nowicki said.

Defense attorney Sheldon Reagan had called Small’s death “tragic but accidental,” noting that Small had been buried with the candy bars and water but that the air-supply system failed.