A Barrington man suspected of killing north suburban endocrinologist Olga Duchon was ordered detained Wednesday after prosecutors alleged he lured her to his home and fatally shot her in front of their daughter.
William Zientek, the 46-year-old charged with first-degree murder, contacted Duchon on Sunday asking her to have a conversation at his home in the 400 block of West Russell Street, authorities told a Cook County judge during a detention hearing in Rolling Meadows. The two had a prior dating relationship and have a 3-year-old daughter together.
In ordering Zientek held, Judge Ellen Mandeltort said he posed a “real and present” threat to the community. She ordered him to have no contact with his daughter. Zientek says the shooting was in self-defense.
Video surveillance from Duchon’s Tesla shows her driving to her Vernon Hills home from work — where she was the featured speaker for a lecture on obesity management — and arriving just after 4:45 p.m. In the video, she’s carrying a laptop bag and leftovers when she exits the car. Prosecutors said Duchon’s mother was at home when she arrived and saw her entering the kitchen and putting the leftovers and some baked goods in the tote bag.
Tesla footage shows Duchon getting back into her car at 4:52 p.m. and driving to Zientek’s home. About 30 minutes later, Duchon walked to the defendant’s door with only the tote bag in her hands. Investigators believe, based on a search of Duchon’s phone after her death, that she had made dinner plans with friends that night and was going to meet with them after stopping at Zientek’s home.
Prosecutors allege that while in the living room, with their daughter present, Zientek struck Duchon in the back of the head with a baseball bat. He hit her a second time on the top of her head, fracturing her skull near her right temple, prosecutors said.
Zientek then shot Duchon in the abdomen, with a bullet hitting her liver, heart and aorta and lodging in her spine, prosecutors said.
Zientek called 911, prosecutors said. Officers entered the home and found Duchon unresponsive and laying on her side with a child’s blanket over her. She was taken to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, where she was pronounced dead, police said. Preliminary results from the Lake County coroner’s office ruled her death a homicide from the gunshot wound.
At the scene, officers recovered a 9 mm handgun on the kitchen counter, a cartridge casing on the living room floor where Duchon was laying, a baseball bat and the tote bag Duchon carried into the house. In Zientek’s garage, officers recovered a backpack containing bullets and an empty holster, prosecutors said.
Zientek’s attorney, Thomas Glasgow, alleged that the shooting was in self-defense. He said Duchon brought a gun to Zientek’s home after asking to see her daughter. He said there were custody disputes over alleged abuse from a family member.
Glasgow alleged that Duchon hid the gun underneath a blanket when she came into the home. Zientek jumped over the couch to grab a baseball bat he hid underneath, he said. Then there was a struggle over the weapon where Zientek used “an adequate amount of self defense to protect himself and his daughter.”
Glasgow also said the daughter told investigators that her mother was holding a gun and that she saw her point it at Zientek.
Duchon, a well-known endocrinologist who was remembered as a “a very bright, smart, well-trained young lady,” filed an emergency order of protection against Zientek in November 2021 in McHenry County, alleging that he had guns in his home and that she feared for her life. She said in the petition that in the past Zientek threatened to kill her if she left him or cheated on him.
Duchon wrote that her mother called her at work to say she found a gun on the couch and did not feel safe alone in the house with Zientek, according to the petition. Duchon called the police and came home to learn that Zientek had multiple weapons, but also reported some guns missing. A gun Zientek reported missing in 2021 was the one used to kill Duchon, prosecutors said, adding that Duchon’s family said she never owned or carried guns.
“I had to leave the house as (I) did not feel safe there and ‘missing gun’ is a lie and makes me scared for my life and my daughter’s life,” the petition said.
In December 2021, a McHenry County judge signed an order that said both parties should stay away from each other except when facilitating parenting time.
On Dec. 2, 2021, Zientek filed a petition asking for parenting time with their daughter, born in 2020, according to McHenry County court records. About six months later, Duchon and Zientek agreed to a shared parenting schedule and responsibilities.
Zientek’s next court appearance is scheduled for December.
