Dupage Policy Journal

DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin announced today that a former Bartlett man found guilty but mentally ill in the stabbing death of his mother in 2019 has been sentenced to twenty-seven years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. On April 12, 2024, Judge Daniel Guerin rendered his guilty but mentally ill verdict against Edward Mitzelfeld, 69 (d.o.b. 11/27/1954), formerly of the 700 block of Bryn Mawr Avenue, following a seven-day-long bench trial that concluded on March 22, 2024.

On May 31, 2019, facing five counts of First-Degree Murder, Mitzelfeld appeared in Bond Court where bond was set at $5 million with 10% to apply. He has remained in custody at the DuPage County Jail since that time.

On May 29, 2019, at approximately 5:23 p.m., officers with the Bartlett Police Department responded to a call at the home Mitzelfeld shared with his ninety-three-year-old mother, Frances Kelly. Upon their arrival, officers encountered Mitzelfeld in the front yard of the house with his hands raised. After entering the home, officers found Kelly lying face down on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood.

Following an investigation into the murder, it was determined that Mitzelfeld and Kelly were in the kitchen together when Mitzelfeld stabbed Kelly numerous times in the back with a kitchen knife leaving stab wounds that severed her aorta and entered her lungs. After the murder, Mitzelfeld called 911.

“This afternoon, Judge Guerin sentenced Edward Mitzelfeld to twenty-seven years behind bars, essentially a life sentence for the stabbing death of his ninety-three-year-old mother,” Berlin said. “This heartbreaking case has haunted the Mitzelfeld and Kelly families for the past five years and with the final chapter now written, I wish them strength as they continue their lives without the love, support and friendship Frances provided. It is my sincerest hope that perhaps with today’s sentencing, Frances’ surviving family and friends will find some measure of closure and keep her memory alive in their hearts for a long time to come."

Berlin thanked "the trial team of Assistant State’s Attorneys Rob Willis, Nicole Wilkes-English and Alyssa Rabulinski for their work in holding Mr. Mitzelfeld responsible for his actions in this tragic case.”