Did Bath Salts Drive 'Drifter' to Kill?
The live-in lover of the man charged with murder in Will County claimed he was haunted by a crazed, drug-induced hallucination just before the killing.
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Nine days before Michael Eberle allegedly beat a man to death after breaking into his place of work, the woman he lived with leveled accusations of drug-induced delirium in a petition to keep him out of their home.
"Michael has a history of substance abuse. Currently I believe he is abusing bath salts that are making him irrational, paranoid and delusional," wrote Karen Trajkovich in a March 16 petition for an order of protection in Kendall County Court.
Trajkovich and Eberle, who was charged Monday in Will County Court with murdering Patrick Shaughnessy, have a 14-year-old daughter together.
The night before Trajkovich sought the order of protection, she claimed he "tore apart my entire garage because he thought everything was burning. He broke or threw away or threw water on my shovels, gardening tools, books, food, my bike, skateboards, etc. ... When I asked him to stop, he got agitated and got in my face because I wouldn't believe that everything is burning."
Trajkovich told of Eberle threatening to kick in her door and strangling her if she locked him out, and said he was hospitalized for psychiatric care after the police took him away.
Trajkovich declined to further discuss Eberle or her relationship with him on Monday.
Until the March 15 episode, Eberle apparently lived together with Trajkovich in a house on Joliet's far west side in Kendall County. At his bond hearing in Will County court on Monday, when Judge Marzell Richardson asked him for his address, Eberle said, "I live here now," in the county jail.
Will County Sheriff's Department Deputy Chief Ken Kaupas called Eberle an area "drifter." According to county jail records, he was homeless at the time of his arrest.
Another woman — Eberle's ex-wife, Heather Eberle — claimed in a petition for an order of protection in Will County court that no one was hallucinating when her garage caught fire. And she blamed Eberle for burning it down.
Heather Eberle said in her July 1 petition that Michael Eberle told her she needed to "grow eyes in the back of my f---ing head" after a home she was trying to sell caught "fire and he is the #1 suspect. He has demolished the entire home" on Gael Drive.
Troy Township Fire Chief Steve Engeldow confirmed at the time of the June 28 garage fire on Gael Drive that the blaze was under investigation. No criminal charges have been filed in connection with that fire.
The Eberles' marriage was dissolved 20 days after Heather Eberle petitioned for her order, which was not granted.
Kaupas said detectives still don't know what prompted Eberle to break into Shaughnessy's place of work at Knauer Industries on the Interstate 55 frontage road in Troy Township.
Before intruding at Knauer Industries — a manufacturer of burial vaults — and killing the 69-year-old Shaughnessy, Eberle tried to break into a house in Shorewood's Saddlebrook Estates subdivision but was frightened off by a resident, police said.
He also allegedly stole a pickup truck from a Troy Township farm, police said. Eberle rammed the pickup in reverse through the closed garage door and drove away after the farm owner found him sitting in the driver's seat, officials said.
Kaupas said detectives are just as unsure of Eberle's motives in those two other incidents, for which he faces charges of burglary and theft.
Synthetic drugs marketed as bath salts were outlawed in Illinois in July. The products have been described as "fake cocaine" and reportedly can cause hallucinations and paranoia.
In This article
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Troy Fire Protection District
700 Cottage St, Shorewood, IL -
Knauer Industries
19505 NE Frontage Rd, Shorewood, IL -
Troy Township
25448 Seil Rd, Shorewood, IL -
Village of Shorewood
1 Towne Center Blvd, Shorewood, IL
Paulette Dakuras
11:48 am on Tuesday, March 27, 2012
gee when they put him under Psyciatric care then they let him go as SANE!!!
My poor Uncle had to endure this guys rath...Life is very unfair!!!
denise
9:34 pm on Tuesday, March 27, 2012
I am sorry for your loss.
Pam
12:05 am on Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Paulette, I am so very sorry for your loss. I met Pat a few times and I had the pleasure of having him at my house for Thanksgiving a few years ago. Pat was a very nice man. My husband, Greg, and the rest of the Wills family have always spoke very highly of Pat and were so saddened to hear of his death.
Do you, by any chance, know of the funeral arrangements? If you have any information, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Pam Wills
Pam
6:32 am on Wednesday, March 28, 2012
The obit is out with the info I was looking for.
Marie
1:46 pm on Wednesday, March 28, 2012
I'm very sorry for your loss, R.I.P
Sofa King
1:11 pm on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Rumor has it that this scum bag is trying to use the mentally ill defense. He is not mentally ill. He is an addict who was high or looking for his next high! I hope to hell the prosecution eats this up. He is a repeat, repeat, repeat, drug abuser, been in and out of rehab/jail/prison his entire adult life, is a burgular, a thief, a liar, beats up women, and knows how to manipulate the system and has fooled many. He needs to go away for life!
Jen
9:42 am on Wednesday, March 28, 2012
I went to school with this fellow..he was always TROUBLE and ALWAYS into drugs..it is too bad because he had great talent as a bmx rider..what a waste of talent...and a waste of life and now he has ruined a family's life too!
merri peterson
10:14 am on Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Steve your right just another excuse to pillage and murder wtf!
Infamous Steve
1:55 pm on Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Marie let me guess next your going to tell us what a kind hearted warm gentle person he was right?
Marie
2:06 pm on Wednesday, March 28, 2012
No, I'm just saying he wasn't himself when this tradegy happened.
Angela
7:17 pm on Wednesday, March 28, 2012
I would have hoped reporters would have the basic human decency, for the sake of Karen and especially her 14 year old, to omit personal information and quotes from Karen's court petition in this article. I do not know how you can sleep at night, knowing that to get a "good story" you made sure everyone knew for certain Karen's prior relationship with Michael, which in turn guarantees that people who otherwise never would have known can now make the connection between him and his 14 year old child. This poor child will someday have to return to school and face classmates who now know more than they ever should have, thanks to your heartless reporting. God forbid anyone you are associated with ever commits a heinous crime, I hope the media makes sure to include your name and reference your children in their report.
Sofa King
7:50 am on Friday, March 30, 2012
I would have thought that an educated woman would not expose her child to this animal. Look at this losers rap sheet, it's a mile long for drug offenses, burglary, restraining orders, etc yet you allow him to live with you? Too many have bailed his sorry butt out his entire life and this was the end result. When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
brittany Taylor
9:39 am on Friday, April 6, 2012
this is very sad because this was my families busy that this happened in and i cant believe someone would just come in and kill a guy for no reason he may of been on drugs but come on.. this poor man and his family dont deserve this pain.. I cant even imagine if it was my uncle that day wow its crazy to even think it happened at all.
justice for pat
11:40 pm on Thursday, May 3, 2012
That scum bag coward loser waste of space just needs to go away for ever. Never see the light of day again. What kind of a man attacks some one who is 20+ years older than you. He has hurt so many people and scarred so many lives by this act of crime, for what just so he could get his next high. I hope he becomes someone's play mate in prison. Such a waste of life he is. RIP pat.
Empathetic observer
9:47 pm on Friday, June 1, 2012
Reject
Empathetic observer
9:41 pm on Friday, June 1, 2012
@Sofia king- sometimes things are not so easy to see. People like that are very good at masking Their deviant selves and sometimes it is hard to face the truth about the ones we love. You haven't walked in her shoes and have no room to judge. It's attitudes like that that keep the laws stuck in the stone ages to where domestic violence and the murder of women in these situations runs rampant. She was an idiot so she deserved it is basically what you are saying and it is completely without compassion. I understand that she herself was thankfully done no bodily harm but she and her daughter could have been and nonetheless, their daily life is now spent in devastation. speaking as a person who was once a victim of abuse as a child with a similar scenario of being under the same roof as a bad man, I sympathize with this woman. until you have experienced what it's like to be in a situation like this (and mind you we dont know all the details, nor should we. There should be some level of privacy)comments like yours are unjustified.
Justice for pat
11:32 pm on Monday, July 16, 2012
Drugs or no drugs he's a loser a waste of space. I wish Illinois had the death penalty because he deserves it. Sorry to hear them bring up his family because they don't have anything to do with it. His daughter may have lost her dad but in a totally different way than I lost my uncle, she can atleast see and talk to him. I never even got to say good bye to my uncle, never got to hug him again, I'll never hear his voice telling me his crazy stories, everyplace we ever went together everything we ever did together brings al these wonderful memories back but knowing you can't do that anymore or he can't participate just tears your heart out. To sit every nite and think did he suffer? Was he scared all alone bleeding not knowing if he was gonna die. Not good thoughts to have pop in your head everyday. I hope this poor excuse for a man gets dealt everything possible in jail and prison since we don't have the death penalty