A former Naperville resident is one of three 18-year-olds charged with first-degree murder this week in the death of a woman who died after a landcaping stone was thrown through her windshield while she was driving in Colorado.
Zachary Kwak, who lived in Naperville until 2021, Joseph Koenig and Nicholas “Mitch” Karol-Chik were taken into custody at their homes in Arvada, Colorado, by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in connection with the April 19 death of 20-year-old Alexa Bartell.
Kwak’s family sold their home near downtown Naperville in October 2021 and moved to Arvada, northwest of Denver.
Bartell’s car was the last of at least seven struck by large landscaping rocks thrown from a vehicle in which the three suspects were allegedly driving, a news release from the sheriff’s office said.
Two minor injuries also were reported as a result of the vehicle damage spree.
The sheriff’s office said mobile device forensics and supporting information from the public led to the arrests, the release said.
Naperville resident James Slykas said he was “completely shocked” when he saw the news reports about his former next-door neighbor. He learned of his arrest from his granddaughter, who he said attended school with Kwak.
The Kwak family were wonderful neighbors, he said. Zachary was the younger of the two boys.
“The parents would send the boys to shovel snow” and do other chores to help him out, Slykas said.
The Kwaks had a backyard pool, he said, but the kids were always quiet when they played outside.
“We lived next to them almost 10 years,” Slykas said.
Zachary Kwak was more of a “free spirit” than his older brother and was “kind of a skater,” he said. He never knew of either boy doing anything that caused trouble or could be considered criminal, he said.
“To hear this is shocking,” Slykas said. “He was a nice kid.”
