35 years later....Imprisoned murderer charged with killing woman in Wheaton in 1976

A long imprisoned murderer was charged today in a decades old cold case murder in the western suburbs, according to sources and court records.

Michael Whitney, 58, was charged with the murder of Darlene Stack, a 28-year-old medical technician student, according to sources and records in the DuPage County Circuit Court website. Stack was found stabbed 35 times in her room in a boarding house in the 1400 block of North Stoddard in Wheaton in August of 1976.

DuPage State’s Attorney Robert Berlin is expected to announce charges at a news conference later this afternoon.

Whitney was due to be paroled from state prison in October 2012 for another DuPage County murder in the early 1980s, in which he robbed and stabbed a 76-year-old Carol Stream man to death. He was convicted of armed robbery, burglary, home invasion and murder, records show, and has been in prison since 1982.

A law enforcement source told the Tribune that Whitney has long been a suspect in the slaying of Darlene Stack, who was stabbed 35 times, according to news accounts. Whitney was renting a room in the same boarding house as the victim, the source said.

Authorities got a break in the case after recent advances in DNA testing linked Whitney to the crime through semen evidence recovered long ago recovered, the source said.

When confronted, the source said, Whitney denied any involvement in the murder.

Stack had lived in the boarding house for only a few days after having resided with one of three sisters in Chicago. She had been attending classes at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield to become a medical technician.

Her landlady told police she became concerned for Stack's safety when she failed to come down for breakfast. She called the school and, told Stack was not there, called police. Stack was found lying in her bed with the covers thrown over her, investigators said at the time. A radio was playing softly in the room and a fan was running.

She was partially nude and her body was covered by wounds, some of which had penetrated her heart, investigators said.