Paul Frederick Runge: The Classified-Ad Serial Killer
Background and Early Violent Offense
Paul Frederick Runge was born on January 28, 1970, and grew up in the Chicago suburb of Oak Forest, Illinois. Long before he became connected to a series of murders, Runge demonstrated an alarming capacity for calculated sexual violence. In 1987, when he was seventeen, he abducted a fourteen-year-old girl, restrained her, sexually assaulted her and subjected her to prolonged abuse. The girl survived, and Runge eventually surrendered to authorities.
Runge received a fourteen-year prison sentence for the attack, but he served only part of it before being paroled in May 1994. His release placed him back in the Chicago metropolitan area, where he married and found employment. Within months, however, women began disappearing or being found murdered under circumstances that investigators would later connect to him.
Runge frequently relied on deception rather than an immediate physical attack. He approached women through personal connections, offers of employment, classified advertisements and signs advertising property or household goods for sale. By appearing to be a customer, employer or harmless visitor, he gained access to victims and private residences where they were isolated from possible help.
The Murder of Stacey Frobel
Stacey Ann Frobel, a twenty-four-year-old mother from Carol Stream, knew Runge's wife. Frobel went to the Runge residence in Streamwood on January 3, 1995, and disappeared during the visit. Runge later admitted that he killed her inside the home and dismembered her body in an effort to prevent identification and conceal the crime.
On January 16, 1995, a dog carried a severed human leg to its owner's property near the Illinois-Wisconsin border. Additional remains, including another leg, a hand and portions of a skull, were recovered during the following months. DNA testing eventually identified the remains as Frobel's. Her disappearance became one of the earliest cases that caused investigators to examine Runge and the people surrounding him more closely.
The Disappearance of Dzeneta and Amela Pasanbegovic
Dzeneta “Janet” Pasanbegovic, twenty-two, and her sister Amela Pasanbegovic, twenty, were refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina who had lived in the United States for only about six months. The sisters shared a residence in Hanover Park and were working to establish new lives after escaping the conflict in their homeland.
On or about July 11, 1995, Runge offered the sisters paid work cleaning a house. Investigators concluded that the employment offer was a trap intended to bring both women to a controlled location. The sisters vanished and were later reported missing. Runge eventually confessed that he restrained, sexually assaulted and killed them. He described attacking both women and disposing of their bodies in garbage containers after dismembering them.
The remains of Dzeneta and Amela were never recovered. Because there were no bodies and certain evidence needed for trial had become legally complicated, the murder charges involving the sisters were ultimately dismissed in 2011. Prosecutors emphasized that the dismissal did not represent a declaration of Runge's innocence. By that time, he was already serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for other murders.
The Murder of Dorota Dziubak
Dorota “Dorothy” Dziubak, thirty, was killed on January 10, 1997, in her home on Chicago's Northwest Side. Dziubak had advertised her property for sale, and Runge reportedly presented himself as an interested buyer. The advertisement provided him with a plausible reason to enter her home without immediately attracting suspicion.
Once inside, Runge attacked and sexually assaulted Dziubak before strangling her. He then set a fire inside the residence, apparently hoping that the flames would destroy physical evidence and make the death appear to be the consequence of a residential fire. Firefighters discovered her body while responding to the blaze. The circumstances suggested that the fire had been deliberately set after the fatal attack.
The Murders of Yolanda Gutierrez and Jessica Muniz
On February 3, 1997, Runge entered the Chicago home of thirty-five-year-old Yolanda Gutierrez after responding to an advertisement for sporting equipment. Gutierrez's ten-year-old daughter, Jessica Muniz, was also inside. What appeared to be an ordinary sales inquiry became a prolonged attack against both mother and child.
Runge restrained Yolanda and Jessica and sexually assaulted them. He then killed both victims by cutting their throats. Before leaving, he poured an accelerant through the residence and set it on fire. Firefighters responding to the blaze found the bodies, and investigators quickly determined that the deaths were not accidental.
The murders of a mother and her young daughter became the central case eventually used to convict Runge. DNA and other forensic evidence connected him to the crimes, while his later statements supplied investigators with additional details. In 2006, a Cook County jury found him guilty of murdering Gutierrez and Muniz, as well as offenses involving kidnapping and sexual assault.
The Murder of Kazimiera Paruch
Kazimiera Paruch, forty-three, was killed on March 4, 1997, inside her Chicago condominium. Like Dziubak, she was attempting to sell her residence. A for-sale sign gave Runge the opportunity to approach her while pretending to be a potential buyer.
Paruch was beaten, stabbed and strangled. Her body was partially unclothed, and investigators believed that the circumstances were consistent with Runge's pattern of sexual violence. He poured an accelerant around the condominium and set it on fire before leaving. Firefighters discovered Paruch's body after extinguishing the blaze.
The similarities among the murders were increasingly difficult to dismiss. Dziubak, Gutierrez, Jessica and Paruch had all been attacked inside Chicago residences within a period of approximately eight weeks. In three separate incidents, the killer had used fire in an apparent effort to destroy evidence. Several victims had also been approached through advertisements or signs involving items or property for sale.
Known and Admitted Victims
- Stacey Ann Frobel, 24 — Killed on January 3, 1995, at the Runge residence in Streamwood, Illinois. Her dismembered remains were later recovered near the Illinois-Wisconsin border.
- Dzeneta “Janet” Pasanbegovic, 22 — Disappeared and was killed on or about July 11, 1995, after being lured with an offer of cleaning work in the Hanover Park area of Illinois. Her remains have never been found.
- Amela Pasanbegovic, 20 — Disappeared and was killed with her sister on or about July 11, 1995, in the Hanover Park area. Her remains have never been found.
- Dorota “Dorothy” Dziubak, 30 — Killed on January 10, 1997, inside her home on Chicago's Northwest Side. Her body was discovered after Runge set the residence on fire.
- Yolanda Gutierrez, 35 — Killed on February 3, 1997, inside her Chicago home after Runge responded to an advertisement for sporting equipment.
- Jessica Muniz, 10 — Killed with her mother, Yolanda Gutierrez, on February 3, 1997, in Chicago. Runge set fire to the home after murdering them.
- Kazimiera Paruch, 43 — Killed on March 4, 1997, inside her Chicago condominium after Runge approached her as a supposed prospective buyer. Her body was found after a deliberately set fire.
Investigation and DNA Evidence
Investigators had examined Runge before the full scope of his crimes became known. The disappearances of Frobel and the Pasanbegovic sisters had drawn attention to Runge and his wife, and federal agents conducted surveillance, examined discarded materials and searched the Runge residence. A March 1996 search produced numerous suspicious items, including weapons and materials associated with violent crime, but authorities did not yet possess enough admissible evidence to charge him with murder.
Runge was returned to custody in May 1997 for violating the conditions of his parole by possessing a weapon. That arrest prevented him from continuing the series of attacks. He remained confined while investigators compared biological evidence from the Chicago murders with samples connected to him.
Advances in DNA testing eventually produced a decisive match. Evidence from the Gutierrez and Muniz crime scene was connected to Runge, allowing detectives to confront him with information that was far stronger than what had been available during the earlier investigation. He then confessed to seven murders, providing accounts of the deaths and describing how he had selected, restrained and disposed of his victims.
Confession and Legal Proceedings
Runge's confession did not immediately resolve every case. Prosecutors had to consider whether each admission was supported by independent physical evidence and whether information obtained during earlier searches would be admissible in court. The absence of the Pasanbegovic sisters' remains created a particularly difficult evidentiary problem.
The strongest prosecution centered on the murders of Yolanda Gutierrez and Jessica Muniz. During his 2006 trial, the state presented forensic evidence, details of his statements and testimony concerning the attack. The jury convicted Runge of both murders and found that the aggravating circumstances made him eligible for capital punishment.
Runge was sentenced to death in June 2006. His convictions and sentence were later reviewed by the Illinois Supreme Court, which upheld the judgment. In March 2011, Illinois abolished capital punishment. Governor Pat Quinn commuted Runge's death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, ensuring that he would remain incarcerated for the rest of his life.
Pattern and Significance of the Crimes
Runge's crimes were marked by preparation, deception and attempts to eliminate evidence. He studied situations in which women might willingly allow a stranger into their homes. A classified advertisement, a for-sale sign or an offer of employment became a means of creating trust and separating a victim from public view.
After the attacks, Runge used different concealment methods. He dismembered some victims and scattered or discarded their remains. In later cases, he set homes on fire, apparently believing that flames would destroy DNA, fingerprints and other evidence. Instead, the repeated use of arson helped investigators recognize similarities among the crimes.
The case also exposed serious weaknesses in the supervision and investigation of violent offenders. Runge committed the murders after receiving parole for an extraordinarily violent attack committed as a teenager. Investigators suspected his involvement in disappearances well before his final known murder, but limitations in the available evidence and delays in sharing or processing information allowed him to remain free.
Paul Frederick Runge is recognized as the killer of at least seven women and girls between January 1995 and March 1997. Although he was convicted specifically for the murders of Yolanda Gutierrez and Jessica Muniz, his detailed admissions and the surrounding evidence connected him to five additional victims. His imprisonment without parole closed the legal case against him, but the failure to recover the bodies of Dzeneta and Amela Pasanbegovic left their family without the certainty and finality that a proper recovery and burial could have provided.
