Woman fatally stabs boyfriend, then dances in living room while handcuffed, IL cops say

An Illinois woman is accused of fatally stabbing her boyfriend and then dancing to music in the living room while handcuffed, officials told news outlets.

Whitney Wilcox, 40, is charged with murder, the Chicago Police Department said in a Dec. 3 news release. She was arrested on Dec. 2.

Police say she killed her 42-year-old boyfriend on Chicago’s north side on Feb. 26, about nine months before her eventual arrest.

Wilcox called 911 at about 2:20 a.m. and said her boyfriend had been stabbed, but she said she didn’t know who was responsible, Cook County prosecutors said during a recent court hearing, CWBChicago reported.

Prosecutors said when Wilcox came to the door, officers noticed she was “distressed” but there was no blood on her or her clothes. Her boyfriend, Jeremy Rodgers, was on the floor in the bathroom, bleeding from the stomach and moaning in pain, and said Wilcox stabbed him, the outlet reported. He died at a hospital the next day.

Wilcox told police she stabbed Rodgers but did so in self-defense after they got into a fight, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

According to court documents, officers handcuffed Wilcox, and as she waited to go to jail, she “ordered her [G]oogle device to play several songs and danced while handcuffed in the living room,” the newspaper reported.

Wilcox was released from custody soon after her boyfriend’s death, but new evidence — her DNA on a kitchen knife covered in Rodgers’ blood found at the scene — led to her Dec. 2 arrest, according to the outlet.

This story was originally published December 4, 2024 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Woman fatally stabs boyfriend, then dances in living room while handcuffed, IL cops say."