CAPENTERSVILLE, Ill., Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A Chicago-area man proposed to his girlfriend with rings he allegedly stole from a slain elderly nurse, police say.
Lorraine Reed said yes when Raymond Harris, her former high school sweetheart, proposed to her two weeks ago, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The two began dating after Harris, 36, was paroled in May for an attempted murder conviction. Harris reportedly raped a Chicago woman and then set her home on fire in 1997.
"He said that I was his rock, he said he loved me and he asked me to marry him," said Reed of northwest suburban Carpentersville. "I just looked at the rings and said, 'Yeah!'"
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However, Reed did not know the rings Harris gave her were originally Virginia Perillo's until police knocked on her door last week looking for Harris.
"My heart just dropped," said Reed, who attended high school with Harris and dated him until he was sent to prison in the 1990s. "Our relationship was built on nothing but lies."
Police say Harris attacked Perillo, 73, a longtime nurse at Rush University Medical Center, when she was getting out of her car on Oct. 22. Perillo suffered serious head injuries and died the next day.
DNA evidence from a bloodstained watch found in Perillo's car was used to link Harris to the crime, police say. Police tracked Harris to Reed's home where he had been living and spoke with Reed, who showed them the rings Harris had given her.
Harris was arrested Tuesday at the temp agency for which he worked, police said.
Perillo's eldest son, John, 36, said Thursday he and his brother were able to identify the rings for police.
"I felt sick to my stomach looking at them," he said during a telephone interview. "What was he thinking?"
On Thursday, Harris was ordered held without bail on first-degree murder and armed robbery charges.
