Richard Frank John Hernandez, 44, a male of Hispanic/Latino descent, was discovered on the evening of June 30, 2025, inside an abandoned residence in the 8000 block of Chittyville Road near Stiritz Road in rural Williamson County, Illinois. Deputies were called just after 5 p.m., and investigators quickly treated the scene as a homicide after locating his body in the vacant home. The following day, an autopsy confirmed he had suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Illinois State Police crime scene investigators were requested to process the house as the Sheriff’s Office began piecing together what happened.
Within days, detectives developed leads that stretched beyond the initial shooting. According to the Sheriff’s Office, the investigation uncovered additional criminal activity tied to the case, including armed robbery and unlawful restraint. One of the suspects ultimately provided a confession that included details of the killing; those statements, investigators said, were corroborated by witness accounts and supporting physical evidence gathered from the scene.
Two Herrin men—Anthony R. Henderson, 24, and Wyatt P. Holland, 22—were first taken into custody on July 3 for an armed robbery unrelated to the homicide and formally charged with that robbery on July 5. On July 9, Williamson County State’s Attorney Ted Hampson charged both men with first-degree murder in Hernandez’s death; local reporting notes each now faces multiple counts. Both remained held in the Williamson County Jail as the case moved forward.
As the charges were filed, officials credited a multi-agency effort—including Illinois State Police and the Herrin Police Department—for progress in the case. Court dates followed: preliminary hearings for Henderson and Holland were set for August 1 at 10:30 a.m., continuing the legal process in a killing that began with a grim discovery at an abandoned house and widened into a broader investigation of related crimes.
