After evading authorities for over 20 years, a 68-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder for a fatal shooting inside a Gold Coast apartment.
David Barklow, detained at a Peruvian airport earlier this year, is accused of fatally shooting a man in a Dearborn Street high-rise in December 2004, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
The case went cold for several years until it was enrolled in a state project for unsolved homicides in 2017.
Kent Projansky, 40, was found shot several times on Dec. 18, 2004, inside his apartment at 1130 N. Dearborn St. After the murder, the building’s residents who spoke to the Sun-Times at the time said they were rattled by the shooting and Projansky was a friendly neighbor.
Three days after Projansky was killed and 14 miles away from the crime scene, a construction worker found a duffle bag with the murder weapon, blood-stained clothes and a box of ammo, according to prosecutors. Fingerprints were found on the items, but there were no leads in the case, and it went cold.
After the case was added to a state project for unsolved homicides in 2017, investigators learned some of the fingerprints belonged to Barklow, according to prosecutors.
Barklow was arrested and questioned in 2019, and police collected additional DNA samples. Prosecutors said Barklow knew Projansky and lived in a neighboring building.
He was released while the investigation continued but soon fled the country, first to Canada then to Sweden, and then he disappeared.
In April 2022, a Cook County arrest warrant was issued for Barklow. The FBI also obtained a federal warrant for Barklow for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
He evaded arrest until April 17 when authorities detained him at an airport in Lima, Peru. He was extradited this month and made his first court appearance Saturday at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse, where he was ordered detained until trial.
“My office will never stop working to seek justice for victims and their families, no matter how much time has passed,” State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke said in a statement.
“I am grateful to the Chicago Police Department for its thorough investigation of this case, and for crucial support from the DOJ, the FBI, and Peruvian authorities who helped ensure that the defendant would face these charges in Cook County.”
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