The morning of October 28, 2011, I received an email from John Foltz stating, “What’s up with this?” He had included an email that had been sent to him from “The Vine Service” containing the following information:
10/28/2011
This is an e-mail from the Illinois Automated Victim Notification System. The offender for whom you have
registered to receive notification, Russell Smrekar, with offender number C71016, has had a change in
custody status as of 10/26/2011. This is not an emergency. The offender has not been released.
For more information, please contact the Victim Services Unit of the Illinois Department of Corrections,
between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Central Time, Monday through Friday [a toll-free number
was provided].