Surveillance audio, a 911 call and statements to arriving officers frame the early-morning sequence prosecutors say ended in murder.
YORKVILLE, Ill. — At about 1:15 a.m. on July 18, surveillance video near downtown Yorkville recorded a man matching Daevin Wlodek’s description running toward his residence. Seven minutes later, the same recording captured a sharp sound that police said was consistent with a gunshot. By 1:36 a.m., officers were being sent to the apartment.
That roughly 20-minute window is now part of a murder case against Wlodek’s girlfriend, 31-year-old Lindsy Kendrick. Prosecutors allege Kendrick shot Wlodek, 28, in the back as he was trying to leave the apartment they shared. Kendrick initially told investigators that Wlodek attacked her and then shot himself, according to reports based on court records. Police and prosecutors say the physical evidence pointed them in another direction, leading to six counts of first-degree murder and additional firearm charges. Kendrick has not been convicted, and the state’s account remains an allegation to be tested in court.
The surveillance recording came from a nearby brewery, according to court records summarized by local media. It did not capture the shooting itself in the reports reviewed. Instead, it provided investigators with reference points immediately before the emergency call. A man matching Wlodek’s description was recorded moving toward the Hydraulic Avenue residence at 1:15 a.m. At 1:22 a.m., the recording picked up one quick, loud noise that investigators believed was consistent with a gunshot. The next publicly described event was Kendrick’s call to authorities reporting that someone had been shot.
Police arrived at the 100 block of West Hydraulic Avenue after the 1:36 a.m. dispatch. The front door was ajar. Wlodek was lying on the floor just inside, suffering from a gunshot wound, and a black 9mm Sig Sauer P320 was nearby, according to court reporting. Kendrick remained on the phone as officers entered. Police said they heard her tell the person on the other end that Wlodek had a gun and had fired it. First responders began treatment before Bristol Kendall Fire Protection District paramedics transported Wlodek to Rush Copley Medical Center in Aurora. He was later pronounced dead.
The scene initially included Kendrick’s account of an argument that, according to her statements described in court documents, became physical. She told officers that Wlodek attacked her and then shot himself. After police advised her of her rights, she discussed the confrontation and said both of them had been in a “fit of rage.” Investigators also recorded a detail that would become important to the prosecution’s theory: court filings say Kendrick told police three times that Wlodek had been trying to leave the apartment shortly before he suffered the fatal wound.
The medical examination changed the weight investigators placed on that explanation. An autopsy found that the bullet entered Wlodek’s back and exited through his chest. The physician conducting the autopsy considered it unlikely that the wound was self-inflicted, according to court documents quoted in local reporting. The autopsy also documented scratches and bruises on Wlodek’s hands, neck and lower extremities. Long blond hair was intertwined in the fingers of his right hand. Prosecutors said Kendrick showed no injuries. Those facts do not by themselves reconstruct every moment of the confrontation, but authorities cited them in challenging the self-inflicted-shooting account.
The investigation continued after Kendrick was taken into custody, which police said occurred about 20 minutes after officers reached the residence. Detectives sought evidence for a gunshot-residue examination. Reporting based on the filings said Kendrick declined to participate in the test, but investigators obtained evidence under an exigent-circumstances rationale. Public accounts reviewed for this article do not provide a complete laboratory result from that evidence, so no conclusion about residue can be stated beyond what investigators reported collecting. The distinction is important because collecting a sample and establishing a forensic result are not the same thing.
By the time prosecutors presented their detention argument, the timeline was paired with allegations about Kendrick’s legal status before the shooting. Court records cited by Patch said she had been convicted in Cook County of three felony aggravated-battery counts and received two years of probation in April, only months before Wlodek’s death. Her Firearm Owner’s Identification card had been revoked. Prosecutors charged her not only with six counts of first-degree murder but also with aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated discharge of a firearm and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon.
The location added another layer to the early police response. The apartment sits in the downtown Yorkville area near businesses and restaurants and just south of the Fox River. Police initially kept officers and investigators around the Hydraulic Avenue block while evidence was processed. Deputy Chief Garrett Carlyle said evidence strongly supported the department’s conclusion that the shooting occurred inside the residence. Kendrick was the only other person police reported finding there when they arrived. No public report reviewed for this article identified an eyewitness who said they saw the shot fired.
As a result, the case described in the initial filings relies heavily on how separate pieces of evidence fit together: the surveillance timing, the location of Wlodek when police entered, the gun near him, Kendrick’s statements, the direction of the gunshot wound, the injuries documented during the autopsy and the allegation that Wlodek had been trying to leave. Prosecutors will have the burden of showing what those facts prove and whether they establish the required elements of murder. Kendrick and her attorneys will be able to challenge the state’s interpretation and the collection and significance of the evidence.
Wlodek’s death also left a family mourning a man they described in an obituary as adventurous, funny and devoted to the people close to him. He was born July 31, 1997, and died 13 days before his 29th birthday. His family said he loved skateboarding and often called it his therapy. He hoped to make the sport part of his future, either as a skateboarder or through designing apparel and equipment. The obituary described him as a father and named his son among the relatives he left behind.
The initial criminal case moved quickly compared with the minutes at its center. Kendrick was taken into custody the morning of the shooting, formally faced murder and firearm charges and was held in Kendall County. Early court coverage said prosecutors opposed her pretrial release based in part on the seriousness of the allegations and her criminal history. A July 28 court date was listed in the reports published after her arrest.
Publicly accessible reporting reviewed through Aug. 27 did not establish what occurred at that scheduled July 28 appearance or identify a later adjudication. Kendrick therefore remains accused, not convicted, in the available record reviewed for this story. The disputed seconds inside the apartment — between the last surveillance marker and the 911 response that followed — remain the central issue the court case must resolve.
Author note: Last updated Aug. 27, 2026.