Parolee charged with Bedford Park cold case murder

Steven Podkulski / photo from Illinois Department of

(BEDFORD PARK) A recent parolee with a long criminal history has been charged with the 2002 cold case murder of a woman in south suburban Bedford Park.

Steven Podkulski, 40, was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder for the death of 27-year-old Jennifer Boyd, according to court records. He was ordered held on a $3 million bond Thursday.

Boyd, who worked as a manager at the Public Storage facility at 6990 W. 79th St. in Bedford Park, was stabbed repeatedly and left to bleed to death inside a locker at the facility on Aug. 3, 2002, the SouthtownStar reported at the time. Her death was the first recorded murder ever in the village.

During a memorial for Boyd at the storage facility on Aug. 3, family and friends released more than nine dozen pink balloons on the 12th anniversary of her death, the SouthtownStar reported.

Bedford Park police and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force investigated the murder for more than 18 months, but the case went cold in 2004, police said in a statement. The case was reopened in the fall of 2012. New evidence was submitted to the crime lab and investigators re-interviewed people they’d talked to 10 years earlier.

New information received in the course of the investigation led to the murder charge being filed against Podkulski, police said.

He has a long history of burglary and theft convictions in several counties dating back to 1993, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records.

He was released on parole Wednesday from Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill after serving five years of a 10-year sentence for a 2009 burglary conviction. Reports said he was arrested immediately upon leaving the prison.

Podkulski’s next court date is scheduled for Nov. 3 in Bridgeview.