Arthur Jensen is behind bars for murdering a 17-year-old girl, Adara Bunn, also known as “Sissy,” at his home in Sheldon, Illinois.
At 4:13 p.m. on Aug. 5, 2019, law enforcement officers were dispatched to a home in the 300 block of West Main Street after receiving a 911 call from a neighbor about a disturbance.
They claim to have heard a young girl screaming from inside the house. She was yelling, “Stop,” “Let me go,” and “I won’t tell police if you just let me go,” according to NBC Chicago.
When officers arrived on the scene, they found Jensen outside his home, where the then-49-year-old told them that “there’s a girl inside, and I strangled her.”
Police officials found Adara’s body inside the home, and an autopsy later confirmed that she died from ligature strangulation.
Jensen was immediately arrested and charged with first-degree murder. He was booked into the Iroquois County Jail, where he was held on a $1 million bond.
Adara was a straight-A student at Milford High School, where she was about to start her junior year.
The aspiring veterinarian lived in Sheldon with her family.
An investigation revealed that three days before Adara was murdered, she attended a neighborhood-wide rummage sale with her mother.
The mother and daughter made a stop at Jensen’s home, where Adara purchased Pocahontas glasses—she was a collector of Disney memorabilia.
On Aug. 4, 2015, Adara returned to Jensen’s house, wanting to speak to his wife about buying more memorabilia items, but she wasn’t home. She was at her high school reunion out of town.
As Jensen and a friend were cleaning up from a previous yard sale, he told Adara to come back later. He claimed that he would have Disney cups available for her to buy.
When Adara returned to Jensen’s home the following day, he strangled her to death with a blue nylon rope, and investigators believe that Jensen lured Adara to her death.
According to Adara’s obituary, she “enjoyed reading, fishing, school amongst other things. She was an all-around joy to everyone around her.”
In a statement, the Milford Area Public School stated that the “community is grieving after hearing of the death of one of our high school students yesterday.”
“We are suffering as a staff, student body, and community for this loss… Please keep the family of our student in your thoughts and prayers during this terrible time.”
Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Quinlan said that it was “one of the worst murder cases” he had “ever seen.”
Jensen’s attorney didn’t deny he killed Adara, but he contested the first-degree murder charge. He claimed that Jensen had no knowledge that the teen was going to stop by his home.
When she showed up, they spoke briefly outside before Jensen went back inside his house. As he exited the bathroom, Jensen’s attorney stated that he was “startled” when he saw Adara standing in his living room area.
He said he tried to “physically remove” Adara from his home, but “during the struggle, he became enraged and pulled the rope from his pocket, which he said he had because he had been packing up the garage sale items,” according to a source.
The police chief testified that Jensen told him that he had anger issues.
Quinlan asserted that Jensen made no mention of “being startled by her” when he initially spoke with police and admitted to killing Adara.
Jensen is no stranger to the law.
Back in 1995, Jensen, along with three others, was found guilty of felony theft, and he was sent to prison for three years.
After a four-day trial in March 2023, a jury deliberated for an hour and a half before finding Jensen guilty of two counts of first-degree murder.
That same year, in May, Jensen was sentenced to 50 years in prison, and he will have to serve his entire sentence before he is released.
The judge also gave Jensen credit for the 1,380 days he had already spent in the county jail.
Iroquois County State’s Attorney James Devine said, “The family afterwards was very relieved and glad that this process is done as far as the court process.”
Jensen subsequently filed an appeal, but the details regarding the process are unavailable.