Sex offender on parole charged with first degree murder of 15-year-old girl

Sean Reed

DeKalb police officers walking across a bridge on College Avenue. A 15-year-old girl was found dead on the 500 block of College Avenue. (Sean Reed | Northern Star)

By Northern Star Staff
May 7, 2023

Editor’s note: This piece was updated at 5:07 pm May 8 to reflect updates to the investigation.

DeKALB – A convicted child sex offender Timothy Doll, on parole since April, has been charged in the murder of 15-year-old DeKalb High School student Gracie A. Sasso-Cleveland.

According to a press release from the DeKalb Police Department, Doll, 29, of 536 College Avenue in DeKalb, was detained May 7 and formally charged May 8.

Doll has been charged with 2 counts of First Degree Murder, Aggravated Criminal Sex Abuse, Concealment of a Homicide, Aggravated Domestic Battery, Obstruction of Justice (2 counts), Unlawful Restraint and Unlawful Communication by a Child Sex Offender.

Doll is currently on probation for a prior Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse case from 2020.

Doll registered as a sex offender with the DeKalb Police Department on April 14.

Further investigation revealed Doll had been in a relationship with the victim.

Timothy Doll, 29, was arrested following the death of Gracie Sasso-Cleveland. Courtesy of the DeKalb Police Department

On the evening of May 4, Doll and Sasso-Cleveland had been in an argument that led to a physical altercation. Doll suffocated Sasso-Cleveland until she lost consciousness.

The cause of death was determined on May 8 as asphyxiation by the coroner’s office.

Doll later put the victim’s body in the dumpster and took her personal items and her phone and threw them in the garbage at another location.

The victim was not seen by family members since May 4, and the DeKalb Police Department was notified the following May 6.

According to a press release by the DeKalb Police Department, phone records showed the victim’s location was within the 500 block of College Avenue on May 4. Police investigation led the police to find the victim’s body in the area May 7.

Search warrants were conducted at nearby residences. Evidence gathered has led to the arrest of one suspect.

The suspect was an acquaintance of the victim and is in police custody.

“There is no threat to the general public in this case,” according to a press release by the DeKalb Police Department. 

More information will be released and updated as soon as it becomes available.