Aurora man charged in 27-year-old murder

An Aurora man was charged Friday morning in a 27-year-old Aurora murder.

Larry Galloway, 46, of the 700 block of Meadowsedge Lane, faces two counts of first degree murder in the 1981 slaying of Cheryl Lynn Hall. Hall, a 20-year-old bank bookkeeper, was found strangled with the cord of an iron in her townhouse on Shamrock Court.

Galloway was taken into custody Thursday night without incident by Aurora police at the Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago, where he works as a train conductor.

At about 6 p.m. on Sept. 9, 1981, Hall was discovered partially clothed and hanging by her neck from a door knob in a second floor bedroom by her husband. She had been strangled with a cord from a clothes iron, but not sexually assaulted.

The murder had been investigated by numerous detectives but authorities were never able to bring charges against Galloway, even though his involvement was suspected within days of the homicide, police said.

Aurora police were able to match Galloway’s DNA to some of the original evidence found at the crime scene, which prompted Kane County State’s Attorney John Barsanti to authorize charges.

Hall was pretty, dark-haired and petite – less than 5-feet tall and just 87 pounds. She and her husband, Nicholas, had not even been married two years. Both of them had good jobs and just days before her death, Hall confided in her mother that they were going to try to have children.

Lisa Larson, Cheryl Lynn’s younger sister, who was 16 at the time of the murder, said the family has never given up hope all these years that the killer would be found.

The family said they had long suspected Galloway’s involvement. Larson said Galloway and his wife at the time were casual friends of Cheryl Lynn and her husband. “He was the only one who would not cooperate with police,” Larson said. “And we always wondered why he would not try to help find the killer if he had nothing to do with it.

Larson said police came to their door around midnight and told them Galloway had been arrested Thursday night.

“I am both happy and sad right now,” Larson said.