Robert Deja, 45, is charged with criminal sexual assault for allegedly abusing his adopted daughter from the age of 15. He is also charged with solicitation for murder and is being held in Cook County Jail on $7 million bond.
The victim is now 20 and has a 3-year-old girl fathered by Deja, who lives on East 227th Street in the far south suburb.
Steger police say the alleged victim is now pregnant again with either her boyfriend or Deja's child. They say pregnancy upset Deja to the point that he threw her out of the house. That is when authorities say he asked his brother to kill the daughter and her boyfriend.
"Just the way the girls acted, they go for bike rides, they're hugging each other, I mean real close. It's just something me and my daughters wouldn't do," said Jim Patrevito, neighbor, when asked he if saw signs of an improper sexual relationship.
"It's nuts, to live three doors down from a guy who's deviant like that, it just blows my mind. I mean this is a great neighborhood, and we got a bunch of great people in this neighborhood," Scott Smith, neighbor.
"The last two weeks there's been people parked on this side of the street. And I've just wondered what's been going on, because I noticed his wife carried this child, a very small baby, less than a year," said Alice Dicken, neighbor.
There are five other children in the Deja household. Chief Richard Stultz, Steger Police told ABC7 that authorities are investigating if there was any other abuse going on in the home.
"People are appalled in this town, that something like that could happen, 'cause it's a small town, things like that don't happen," said Stultz.
Police would not comment on whether they have had prior contact with the family.
