Illinois Man Convicted in Dierdre Silas’ Murder Prompts Calls for Harsher Penalties

Dierdre Silas was killed in January 2022 as she was responding to a call about possibly endangered children at a home in Thayer, about 23 miles (37 kilometers) south of Springfield. Silas was a child protection specialist for the Department of Children and Family Services and was initially called to the home to investigate "a report of abuse and neglect" against the parents of two children living at the residence.

Thursday, Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Madonia convicted an Illinois man, Benjamin Reed, of first-degree murder in the killing of Deidre Silas.

Sangamon County State's Attorney John Milhiser said in a statement that the judge found that Reed "had a mental illness as defined by Illinois law that was present at the time of the murder, leading to a guilty but mentally ill verdict."

House Minority Leader Tony McCombie has continued to advocate for better laws to protect DCFS workers, putting them on the same threshold as police officers and fire fighters. While McCombie's legislation has been held up in the statehouse, she spoke this week about the need for these laws, especially in light of Dierdre Silas' case:

"If you harm a DCFS worker or a Department of Aging worker, you should be penalized for that crime at the same level as if you were committing that same crime against a police officer, a teacher, a fireman. It should be the same, it is no different," said McCombie. "It's not about protecting DCFS workers or Department of Aging workers, it's about respecting them. This is a bill that we thought would have been a simple cleanup bill, an oversight, which we see a lot in Springfield, for first responders to be treated the same across the board."

Read more about Leader McCombie's legislation here: Illinois House GOP Leader calls for harsher penalties for people who hurt DCFS workers (wgem.com).