‘Justice has been served’: Ex-husband of Natasha Cleary arrested for 2011 triple murder in Rockford

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — “Justice has been served today,” according to the family of Natasha Cleary, who, along with her sons, Marquwon Owens, 12, and Katarion Friar, 2, were murdered in their Rockford home 14 years ago.

On Tuesday, Rockford law enforcement

announced the arrest of 51-year-old Katonka Friar, Cleary’s ex-husband and father of Katarion, who now stands accused of killing her.

Taurean Thomas, 38, has also been charged with murder, home invasion, and other crimes from the night of April 17th, 2011, when prosecutors say the pair broke into Cleary’s Canterbury Lane home.

Friar is accused of shooting all three victims and then setting the house on fire to burn the bodies.

He made his first appearance in Winnebago County Court at 1:30 p.m. this afternoon.

“I really don’t know what to say. I’m speechless,” said family member Vivian Ferguson. “They were our family. And I just. I hate that this happened. But justice has been served today.”

“The oldest kid was my son’s first born, Marquwon,” said John Owens. “And, you know, for somebody to go in there and do something like that, they less than a man. You know, my thing is, this dude has been in so much stuff before. Why everyone keep putting this off? If you’re going to sentence him, sentence him. and give him life and be done with it.”

Retired Rockford Police Officer Kurt Whisenand worked on the case for over a decade.

Friar was the primary suspect in the case initially, but another man used an ATM with Cleary’s stolen debit card while he was in jail.

Now, investigators believe that man was Thomas. Winnebago County State’s Attorney J. Hanley told reporters at a press conference Tuesday afternoon that DNA evidence connected Thomas to the crime.

A lack of concrete evidence and cooperation at the time frustrated investigators, leading to a decade-long case.

“It doesn’t bring the loved ones back. But it does bring a little bit of closure to the family,” Whisenand said. “As investigators, whatever we can do to help that process, it’s just another small victory. But we know that the road is still long from this point on. There’s still a lot of work to do.”

“I pray to God that we can overcome this and be peaceful about it because justice has been served,” Ferguson said. “And I just pray that everybody just be able to have peace about this and let God handle this.”