Defendants in Joliet murder tried sex near bodies, but ‘it was weird’

Joshua Miner and Alisa Massaro had previously joked about necrophilia so, when the opportunity presented itself, they decided to give it a whirl, Miner said in a videotaped interview with police played in court Thursday.

Just hours after the killings of 22-year-olds Eric Glover and Terrance Rankins, it was Massaro who first suggested having sex, Miner claimed.

“She’s like, ‘Let’s have sex,’” Miner said in the video. “And I was like, ‘Let’s have sex on the bodies.’”

Later he said it was not on them, but next to them. Nevertheless, “performance issues” got in the way, he said.

“We both couldn’t get off, plus it was weird,” he said.

During the encounter, Adam Landerman, the son of a Joliet police officer also accused in the killings, made sexual advances to Massaro but was rebuffed, Miner said in the video.

Miner, Massaro, Bethany McKee and Landerman were accused of killing Rankins and Glover in early January 2013. Massaro, 20, pleaded guilty to robbery and concealing a homicidal death in exchange for a 10-year-prison sentence. She also agreed to testify against her co-defendants, including 20-year-old McKee. McKee was convicted of murder last month after a six-day bench trial. Her sentencing is set for Oct. 16, and she faces a mandatory term of life in prison.

The attack took place in the second-floor apartment of Massaro’s house at 1121 N. Hickory Street where Glover and Rankins were lured under the pretense that they’d be partying with McKee and Massaro.

Wearing the same blood-spattered clothes he had on during the killings, Miner told police everyone was hanging out, playing video games before things went horribly awry, according to the recording.

The initial plan was to rob 22-year-olds Eric Glover and Terrance Rankins, but McKee changed her mind so they hung out for about an hour, Miner told the Joliet police who questioned him after the killings.

“Only if they stepped up to one of us would we beat their ass and make them run down the street naked,” Miner said in the in the interview with police played before Will County Circuit Court Judge Gerald Kinney. “But when they came here everything was cool. We just played video games for an hour. We were hanging out.”

According to Miner’s account of the killings, which prosecutors dispute as a fictitious cover story, one of the victims at one point tried to force himself on McKee. That man ripped off McKee’s pants, Miner said, even when she told him to stop.

Miner told police that he punched the man in the side of the head, but “lost control” after the other victim tried to intervene and kicked him in the face.

“I tried to help some people out and I went too far,” Miner told police.

After the victims were dead, Miner said, Massaro and McKee, “freaked out and they didn’t want them to come alive.” So they tied the victims.

One victim had marijuana and $10, while the other had $100 and cocaine, Miner claimed.

Miner told police he and Landerman drove the victims’ car to Chicago early the next morning where they planned to get rid of it. He wouldn’t tell police who he met, saying, “I don’t want to rat out my guy.”

At one point in the video, Miner told police he was wearing the clothes he had on during the killings. He pointed to a spot of blood on his pants and he pointed to a spot on his shirt and he said, “That’s probably blood there.”

The two women, however, have offered different accounts. They said they left the room when Miner signaled the attack was about to begin. McKee told police she saw Miner punch Rankins as Rankins cried, “What did I do? Why are you doing this?”

Massaro said she tried to return to the apartment only to find the door locked. On the other side of the door, she said she heard Miner saying, “Die, die.”

Miner and Landerman allegedly strangled the men. But according to testimony in McKee’s trial, Massaro joined them in the hours that followed in beating the bodies with a heavy liquor bottle and shouting racial epithets at the victims. All four allegedly plotted to dispose of the corpses, and Landerman brought tools to the house for that purpose. McKee also called her father for help covering up the crime.

McKee told police Miner and Massaro talked about having sex on the victims’ bodies. Massaro acknowledged having done so after her arrest in January 2013, but she denied it in court last month.

Miner also claimed that Landerman took elaborate steps to dispose of the victims’ cell phones.

He dunked them in water, then busted them into pieces before burning them and submersing them back into water.

The group also had various ideas for disposing of the bodies They considered dumping them in the quarry, or “cutting them into little pieces” and spreading their body parts into various people’s garbage cans, Miner told police.

Contributing: Correspondent Frank Vaisvilas, Staff Reporter Jon Seidel