Strange Silence Shrouds Suicide for Hire : Illinois: A woman in pain after a mastectomy asked at least four neighbors to kill her before someone agreed. Police wonder why none of the others spoke up.

Susan Potempa’s husband and son found her battered body in the garage after returning from a Thanksgiving football game. At first, police called her death a random act of violence.

Then an even more disturbing story unfolded. The 50-year-old woman, racked by pain after a mastectomy for breast cancer, had asked at least four neighborhood men about arranging a murder before finding a jobless 18-year-old who police said took her life for $2,100 in cash.

Why didn’t the neighbors who knew Potempa well know how desperate she was? Why would she go to such lengths to end her life? Why didn’t the men she solicited for murder tell authorities?

“I’ve seen murders for 36 years,” Police Chief Anthony Corbo said. “I’ve seen bloodier and more gruesome murders, but never a murder like this with the ‘for hire’ aspects and so many people (who) had inklings of it and (had) not come forward.

“I find it hard to believe that people would keep to themselves and not pick up the phone.”

Suspicious spending pointed to Reginald Williams, an 18-year-old who lived less than three blocks from the Potempa family, and he told a friend that he had killed Potempa, investigators said.

The friend contacted police and agreed to tape a conversation with Williams, leading to his arrest in early December. He is in jail in lieu of $350,000 bond on a charge of first-degree murder.

“The victim’s willingness to be murdered is irrelevant,” Cook County State’s Atty. Jack O’Malley said.

Robert and Susan Potempa lived in a split-level house on Selma Street in this blue-collar Chicago suburb for more than 20 years, neighbors said. They always greeted people with a smile and a wave.

A year ago, Susan Potempa’s breast cancer was diagnosed. She had a mastectomy, but the surgery left her in excruciating pain, said neighbors who often drove her to the hospital when she was too sick to drive herself.

Bob Ingram, who lives a few houses away, said Susan Potempa asked him several months ago if he knew anyone who would “bump someone off.”

“She didn’t mention who it was . . . . She said, ‘I’ll pay money,’ ” Ingram, 20, told the Daily Southtown newspaper.

“I just kind of blew her off,” he said. “Anytime I’d see her I’d say, ‘Yeah, I’ll find someone,’ but I didn’t want nothing to do with it.”

Police said Susan Potempa drove Williams to her house on Thanksgiving night, when Williams allegedly tried to strangle her and left with the $2,100 after she lost consciousness.

But she survived and tracked him down so he could finish the job, authorities said. Police said Williams succeeded the second time, strangling her with an electrical cord and hitting her over the head with a power drill.

Susan Potempa was found two days later when her son and husband returned from an out-of-town football game. They have refused to talk with reporters. Police said there is no evidence that her family knew of her plans.

O’Malley also said there is no evidence that she arranged the murder to preserve insurance benefits.