College Student Killed in 'Targeted Crime'

Sept. 8, 2008 — -- After a weekend spent investigating the death of a 19-year-old college student found shot dead in his home, police in a sleepy Chicago suburb remain stumped with neither motive and nor arrests in a crime that has shocked the community.

Joseph Ziegler, 19, a former high school football player, described as a quiet, mature college student who wanted to become a police officer, was shot in the head and killed Thursday in his family's home in a normally tranquil suburban neighborhood.

"Investigators have been working since Friday," said police Lt. Rich Russo. "They're following up on a lot of leads and speaking to a lot of people at this point."

Police have not yet determined a motive but characterized the death as a purposeful attack, Russo said.

"All the signs point to it being a targeted crime and not a random home invasion thing," he said.

Police said that usually the town, located about 30 miles northwest of Chicago, has only one homicide a year; Ziegler's death makes it the second homicide.

"It's a quiet neighborhood. This is definitely an unusual occurrence," Russo said.

Ziegler played football at Schaumburg High School, from which he graduated in 2007.

"He was well-liked and looked at as a leader on the football team," said Tom Petersen, a spokesman at Township High School District 211.

Ziegler's death dealt Mark Stilling a double blow; he is both the Schaumburg High School's football coach and the school's psychologist.

Stilling characterized Ziegler's death as a "shock" to the high school community, which pulls students from both Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg, Ill., another suburb.

"I've worked here 10 years and I haven't had any of my former students lose their lives... certainly none so tragically or so violently," he said. "This isn't something that's commonplace

Stilling coached Ziegler, who was the team's safety, for four years on the high school's varsity football team.

"As a football player, he was a tremendous hitter. He was a great tackler," Stilling said. "He was intelligent. His work ethic was admirable. ... It's really sad to see something tragic happen to someone with so much potential."

In his role as psychologist, Ziegler helped offer solace to Schaumburg students as they heard the news of the former student's death on Friday at school.

"From the time I arrived here Friday morning, it was pretty obvious he meant a great deal to a lot of people," Stilling said.

Residents seemed similarly surprised by the death in the normally tranquil suburb.

"Last night, I got home from work. I saw the police and all the police tape around. I was nervous. I didn't know what was going on," neighbor Jose Garcia told ABC News' WLS-TV. Neighbors also told WLS that Ziegler had late-night parties and visitors.

There was "a lot of noise early in the morning, in the early morning hours -- a lot of going and coming from the house," another neighbor Clare Orlandino said.

Ziegler's father found him Thursday afternoon in the basement bedroom of his family's Hoffman Estates, Ill., home, police say. Authorities received a call of a report of an unconscious person at 5:37 p.m., according to Russo.

"Nothing appeared to be stolen," Russo added. "There were no signs of a struggle, no signs of forced entry, but evidence did lead the way for it to be investigated as a homicide."

Ziegler died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, which performed an autopsy Friday. There was a trail of blood leading from the kitchen to Ziegler's bedroom in the basement, police said.

There was "trauma to his nose and that may have been cause of the blood trail," a medical examiner spokeswoman said.

Ziegler was in his second year at Harper College, a community college in the neighboring town Palatine, Ill., where he studied criminal justice; according to the school, he planned on becoming a police officer.

"He was a quiet student. He was well mannered. ... He never caused any kinds of problems. I think that he seemed mature," Harper professor Peter Puleo, who taught Ziegler during the spring, told ABC News. "He seemed to have very realistic expectation of what law enforcement was about unlike other students who were watching car chases on TV. ... He didn't have these ideas that he was going to become the director of FBI. He wanted to get on the force of a police department and wanted to figure out where his career would take him."