Creve Coeur police transferred the investigation because the woman who reported the shooting was one of the department’s own officers.
CREVE COEUR, Ill. — A decision to place a fatal shooting investigation in the hands of an outside agency led nearly four months later to the arrest of a former Creve Coeur police officer on three counts of first-degree murder.
The case began at 2:13 a.m. March 10, when Caitlynn J. Girkin called 911 from a residence she shared with Adolfo Cazares in the 500 block of Roosevelt Street. Girkin, then a Creve Coeur officer, reported that a man had suffered what she described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound involving her personal firearm. Responding officers found Cazares, 29, critically wounded in a hallway near Girkin’s bedroom. He died despite lifesaving efforts, authorities said.
Creve Coeur police faced an immediate conflict concern because the person who made the report was a member of their department. The agency asked the Illinois State Police Division of Criminal Investigation to examine the death rather than having local officers investigate a colleague. That handoff placed interviews, evidence review and charging recommendations outside the municipal department in which Girkin served. State police later described their work as a comprehensive investigation.
The transfer did not mean investigators had decided at the outset that a crime occurred. The first public description treated the matter as a death investigation, and state police released few details during the months that followed. Cazares was identified as the person who had been shot, but authorities did not immediately announce an arrest or publicly accuse Girkin. That changed July 7, when investigators took her into custody and transported her to the Tazewell County Jail.
The Tazewell County State’s Attorney’s Office charged Girkin, 27, with three counts of first-degree murder. The number of counts can reflect alternative legal theories based on the same death, although the complete charging document has not been published in the reports reviewed for this article. Illinois law permits first-degree murder charges under several theories involving intent, knowledge that conduct would cause death or knowledge that an act created a strong probability of death or serious injury. Prosecutors must prove the applicable theory beyond a reasonable doubt. The outside investigation focused in part on what Girkin said happened in the bedroom. According to a probable cause affidavit described by local reporters, she initially said Cazares entered her room holding her gun and pointed it at her. She reportedly said she reached for the weapon because she thought he might harm himself, heard it fire during a struggle and then asked whether he had shot himself. Girkin allegedly said Cazares told her that he had.
Investigators later recorded different descriptions. Girkin first said Cazares’ sweatpants fell as he collapsed, prosecutors alleged, but she later said he had been pulling them down while pointing the weapon. During a second interview more than a month after the death, she reportedly said the gun had been on her nightstand rather than in Cazares’ hands when he entered. She said he tried to touch her leg, she pushed him away, picked up the gun and shot because she feared an assault, according to the affidavit.
Those accounts are allegations contained in the state’s presentation of probable cause. They are not trial findings, and Girkin has not been convicted. A defense attorney can dispute how investigators interpreted her statements, challenge whether questions were accurately characterized and test whether forensic evidence supports the prosecution’s sequence. The publicly available reports do not include full recordings of the interviews, laboratory findings or a defense filing setting out Girkin’s legal position.
Investigators also learned that Girkin allegedly sent Cazares Snapchat images shortly before the shooting. The messages reportedly showed her holding the gun near her head and in her mouth. Girkin told investigators that Cazares entered the bedroom because of those messages, according to the affidavit. That information gave investigators a possible explanation for why he approached her room, but the public record does not establish precisely what was said between them or how the encounter escalated.
The fact that the firearm belonged to a police officer added an institutional dimension to what otherwise occurred inside a private residence while Girkin was off duty. Public reports describe it as her personal handgun rather than a department-issued weapon. Authorities have not publicly said whether the gun was carried as part of her employment, how it was stored before the encounter or whether department policies applied to its off-duty use. The shooting was not labeled an officer-involved shooting by state police.
Girkin’s law enforcement career was relatively brief. State training-board information cited by WCBU showed that she began working for Creve Coeur as a part-time officer in January 2025 and moved to full-time status in September. She previously served for about 13 months as a full-time Peoria police officer. A department social media post reportedly showed her being sworn in at Creve Coeur in September 2025. After her arrest, Chief Justin Egan identified her as a former officer.
Public statements have not explained when or why Girkin’s employment ended. That question is separate from whether she committed a crime, but it concerns how a police department responds when an officer becomes the subject of a homicide investigation. The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board maintains employment and certification records for officers, while employing agencies control many personnel decisions. No public report reviewed for this article said that Girkin had been formally decertified.
The state-police investigation also separated the work of gathering evidence from the decisions made by Tazewell County prosecutors. Investigators collected information and conducted interviews, while the state’s attorney’s office filed the charges and a petition seeking pretrial detention. Girkin appeared from jail by video at her first reported court hearing. She told the court she was attempting to retain private counsel, and the detention proceeding was delayed to give her defense time to examine the materials.
A local radio report said the discovery available at that stage included more than 500 pages of police reports and at least two interviews. That volume indicates a broader inquiry than the limited details made public in the arrest announcement, but the contents of those materials remain largely undisclosed. They may include photographs, medical findings, digital records, officer reports and forensic analysis. It is not yet publicly known which items prosecutors believe most directly establish that the shooting was intentional and unjustified.
The decision on pretrial detention is governed by a separate legal standard from the final murder case. Illinois law allows prosecutors to seek detention for a person charged with a forcible felony such as first-degree murder when they allege that release would create a real and present safety threat or that other statutory grounds apply. A judge must evaluate the petition and whether conditions of release could address the identified risks. The hearing does not determine guilt.
Cazares’ death remained at the center of the proceeding even as public attention turned to Girkin’s occupation and her statements. His obituary said he was born in Chicago, had lived in Kewanee and Creve Coeur and was the youngest child in his family. It described his enjoyment of travel, video games and gatherings with friends. His family held services in Kewanee later in March, while the criminal investigation continued without a public arrest.
The case illustrates why police agencies commonly seek outside review when an officer is directly involved in a death, even when the event occurs off duty. The arrangement does not guarantee agreement with the outcome, but it reduces the risk that colleagues will make key investigative decisions about one of their own. Here, the state inquiry moved from an initial report of self-inflicted injury to murder charges based partly on alleged inconsistencies and evidence gathered over several months.
The most recent public materials reviewed for this article did not show a trial, plea or final resolution of the charges. State police have said the investigation remains active, and later court proceedings will determine what evidence is admissible and whether prosecutors can prove their allegations.
Author note: Last updated Aug. 4, 2026.