'He should go to jail': DNA proves CPS teacher fathered student’s child, but law says it’s too late
DNA proves CPS teacher fathered student’s child, but law says it’s too late
After 40 years of carrying the trauma alone, Nancy Alexander received DNA confirmation linking her daughter’s father to her alleged abuser — but a statute of limitations prevents criminal charges.
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CHICAGO — For more than 40 years, Nancy Alexander lived in the shadow of a secret that broke her heart every single day.
She was just a young girl—a Chicago Public School student struggling with epilepsy—when the one person assigned to help her learn to read allegedly stole her childhood instead.
For four long decades, Nancy endured the agonizing weight of that trauma alone. She raised a special needs daughter conceived from the abuse, battled severe depression, and tried three times to end her own life.
Today, science has finally vindicated her. A DNA test confirms with near-certainty who her daughter’s father is. Yet, because of an unyielding legal deadline, the justice Nancy spent a lifetime waiting for remains agonizingly out of reach.
A place of fear instead of learning
The backstory:
In the late 1970s, Nancy was a student at John Farren Elementary School on Chicago’s South Side. Because epilepsy made reading difficult, the school assigned her extra help with a teacher named Richard Neff.
Instead of a safe haven, the classroom became a place of terror. What began as inappropriate touching escalated into years of repeated sexual assaults inside empty classrooms and school closets at John Farren and Parkman Elementary.
"He would tell me I would have to stay behind. 'Oh, you need to take a spelling test,'" Nancy recalled, her voice heavy with the pain of those memories. "I was repeatedly raped over the years."
When the abuse left her pregnant at just 15 years old, her abuser used cruel, racist threats to ensure her silence, telling her that no one would ever believe "a Black little girl from the projects."
Terrified and isolated, Nancy was forced out of her home at 16. She kept the secret locked deep inside her heart, working tirelessly to survive and raise her daughter alone.
A mother's love breeds courage
Dig deeper:
For decades, Nancy stayed silent to protect her child. But in 2022, everything changed.
After surviving a dangerous brain hemorrhage, Nancy faced her own mortality. Around the same time, her daughter—now an adult—began asking heartbreaking questions about where she came from and who her family was.
"I was bleeding at the brain, then my daughter got sick," Nancy shared. "I thought, 'I'm dying... my daughter needs to know who her people are.' And I thought, if he raped me, he's going to do the same thing to her."
Driven by a mother’s fierce love, Nancy went to the Chicago Police Department in October 2022 to file a formal report. Then, mother and daughter took matters into their own hands, using Ancestry.com to track down Neff’s family.
They dialed phone number after phone number from morning until night, desperate for a connection. Finally, someone answered: Neff’s adult daughter, who goes by "M."
A traumatic detail and a 1,300-mile journey
When Nancy spoke with M, she shared a specific memory that chilled M to the core. Nancy remembered that whenever Neff was going to abuse her, he wore a specific beige suit jacket.
"My father had this closet full of brown suit jackets... [He] was a very methodical person… He never deviated," M remembered. "I just knew from that detail that she was telling me the truth."
M was dealing with her own painful, recovered memories of childhood abuse by her father. Knowing she held the key to helping Nancy, M got behind the wheel and drove more than 1,300 miles from Montana to Chicago to submit her DNA to police.
The test results brought emotional clarity to 43 years of pain: a 99.79% probability that M and Nancy’s daughter are half-sisters.
The legal wall: a broken heart in the eyes of the law
What they're saying:
Science proved Nancy was telling the truth. But when her attorney, Jarrett Adams, brought the compelling evidence to law enforcement, they hit a devastating legal wall.
Although Illinois passed a law in 2019 (HB 2135) eliminating the statute of limitations for sexual assault, constitutional restrictions prevent the law from being applied retroactively to cases where the time limit expired before 1986. Because Nancy's abuse ended in 1982, the clock had legally run out long ago.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office released a statement acknowledging the painful reality of the situation:
"It takes immense courage for survivors of child sexual abuse to come forward, and we are committed to seeking justice for this deeply traumatizing crime whenever the law allows. Unfortunately, there are cases in which prosecution is not legally possible because the statute of limitations has expired.
In every case, we assess whether prosecution is legally viable and consider any extensions to the statute of limitations that may have been in place at the time of the offense.
In this case, we could not move forward with any prosecution, and the investigation was not referred for a review due to the statute of limitations."
Chicago police officially marked the case "Exceptionally Cleared Closed"—meaning they know who the suspect is, but law enforcement is legally powerless to arrest him.
What's next:
Richard Neff, now 79 and living in North Carolina, did not return calls for comment.
For Nancy Alexander, science has given her the truth, and her daughter finally knows her roots. But a piece of paper cannot heal four decades of stolen youth or the heartbreak of a system that tells a survivor it is simply "too late."
When asked what justice looks like after a lifetime of carrying such a heavy burden, Nancy's answer is simple, honest, and unflinching: "He should go to jail."
If you or a loved one is feeling distressed, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Line for free and confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
CLICK HERE for the warning signs and risk factors of suicide and CLICK HERE for more on the 988 Lifeline.
The Source: The information in this report came from interviews with Nancy Alexander, M, Jarrett Adams, and statements from the Cook County State's Attorney's Office and Chicago police.