Illinois man convicted of fatally strangling his mom with bungee cord because she was dating

MADISON COUNTY, Ill. (TCN) -- A 46-year-old man has been convicted of killing his 60-year-old mother after she went on a date.

According to the Madison County State's Attorney's Office, a jury found Neil Howard guilty of first-degree murder in connection with the death of Norma Caraker. Howard will be sentenced at a later date and faces up to 60 years in prison.

Prosecutors argued Howard, who lived in the victim's basement, was "unhappy about his mother's dating." In September 2023, shortly after Caraker went on a date, Howard allegedly strangled her to death with a bungee cord. The victim's dating was reportedly "making Howard 'angrier and angrier and angrier," until "he got drunk enough that he couldn't take it anymore."

In the early hours of Sept. 13, 2023, Howard called 911 because his mother was unresponsive. Troy Police responded to the residence and found her in her bed with a bungee cord still around her neck, and she was pronounced deceased.

According to the Belleville News-Democrat, prosecutors said Howard was an upset, unemployed man with a history of domestic violence. Howard allegedly tried to blame his mother's death on her date, James Carter. However, Howard was reportedly the only person in Caraker's residence when officers located her body.

Assistant State’s Attorney Luke Yager said Howard "had enough of her sleeping around. He’d had enough of her not giving him money,” the Belleville News-Democrat reports. Yager reportedly showed body-camera footage of Howard telling authorities about a man who ran out of the glass door, but officers determined it had been locked from the inside. Howard also allegedly stole $58 from his mother.

According to the Belleville News-Democrat, the defense claimed Troy Police ignored other possible leads and obtained a DNA sample from Carter over a year after the victim's death. Other defense witnesses reportedly said Caraker often kept her door unlocked, and she would bring home men for sex and had an on-and-off boyfriend named as a beneficiary on her life insurance policy.

A crime lab technician also allegedly testified and claimed she found Carter's DNA on the bungee cord and under Caraker's acrylic fingernails. However, prosecutors reportedly insisted Howard wore latex gloves when he strangled his mother, and his DNA wasn't on the cord because the victim was trying to pull it away from her neck.

According to prosecutors, during the trial, Yager told jurors that the defendant "wrapped that cord around her neck, and he pulled until she stopped breathing."

In a statement, Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Haine said, "The careful and meticulous work of the responding officers and investigators allowed our prosecution team to show the jury exactly what happened in the critical timeframe around Norma Caraker’s senseless death. This was a challenging case that relied heavily on scientific and technological evidence."

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