Chicago Tribune, Friday, June 9, 2000
KitchenWorks vice president found slain in office
By Arthur Hawkings
TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
A downtown office secretary made a grisly discovery Thursday morning when she entered the office of her boss and found him bludgeoned to death in a pool of blood.
The body of KitchenWorks vice president Douglas Dardis, 52, was found shortly after 9 a.m. as the sales division he headed began their day's work at the company's headquarters at 33 N. Dearborn.
Dardis' secretary contacted the police, who pronounced the victim dead at the scene. Police do not have a motive for the killing or a suspect in custody.
"At this point, we haven't eliminated anybody," said area one detective Ron Hayes. Crime scene investigators have collected several boxes of possible evidence from Dardis' 11th floor office and other areas of the department. Sections of the company remain sealed off.
A spokesperson from the Cook County medical examiner's office said Dardis suffered severe head trauma from repeated blows by a blunt instrument. No weapon has been found.
Preliminary reports place the time of death between 7 p.m. and midnight Wednesday evening. Dardis was last seen working in his office by a custodian about 6:50 p.m. There was no sign of a struggle or burglary, police said. Window curtains in the office were closed.
KitchenWorks occupies floors eight through 12 of the Brandon Building. Access to the company's headquarters is controlled through a single passage that is equipped with a security guard, videocamera, and electronic log-in system that uses employees' identification cards.
"The security system should help us to pinpoint who was in the building at the time of the murder," said Hayes.
Dardis joined KitchenWorks just four months ago, according to a company spokesperson. He previously served as Director of Marketing at Middlebury Corp., a restaurant supply company.
KitchenWorks is a $700 million company that sells high-end kitchenware, including the popular What's Cooking? line, for retail and direct sales. The company has struggled with declining earnings in recent years as more competitors enter the market.