By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

Cook County prosecutors said Aug. 28 that a 46-year-old-man allegedly confessed to a 1977 murder, saying that he killed a classmate because the boy had made an unwanted homosexual advance.

The Daily Southtown reported that Fred Rogers earlier this year confessed to killing his Homewood-Flossmoor High School classmate Kenny Hellstrom, then 15, as Hellstrom walked home from his part-time job at a gas station.

Rogers was arrested in March after nearly three decades on the run. He left town the night of the murder and had been living in locations in Tennessee and Pennsylvania. He allegedly confessed after a routine traffic stop about a mile from the murder scene.

He is fighting an attempt to have the case transferred to an adult court, where he could draw a stiffer sentence.

Rogers allegedly told police that he and Hellstrom agreed to meet in a church parking lot after Hellstrom completed work to “smoke a joint together,” according to Asst. State’s Attorney Nick D’Angelo.

When Hellstrom twice made sexual advances, Rogers became angry and stabbed him four times in the back, once in the arm and once in each of his shoulders, D’Angelo said.

Hellstrom was able to make it home, where he died in his mother’s arms.

Rogers was always a suspect, but police also interviewed serial killer John Wayne Gacy for a connection to the case and investigated a male prostitute ring Hellstrom testified against, according to the Daily Southtown.

Rogers’ hearing was continued to Oct. 2.