The Top Stories of 2011 on Montgomery Patch

Montgomery Patch launched on Feb. 8. Since that date, we’ve published just about 1,800 articles. Some have been pretty popular, some haven’t. (Our least successful post had a total of six page views. Ouch.)

But enough about the unpopular kids. A quick tour of our most-read stories of 2011 is like seeing the year in miniature, touching on many of the most important events. You voted with your page views. Here are the 10 stories that drew you in more than any others this year.

1. Our most-read story of the year wasn’t even ours—it was of an Oswego woman, Suzette O’Donnell, found dead at a Sybaris in Frankfort on July 29, as covered by Tinley Park Patch.  More than 2,700 of you checked this story out. 

2. Perhaps the biggest event in our area this year was the of Oswego, whom police said was shot by her on-again, off-again boyfriend Daniel Kiefer of Boulder Hill on Aug. 17. Kiefer then turned the gun on himself, police said. It was a crime that rocked those neighborhoods, and friends of Murphy organized a for her family in October.

3. This year saw the —the filming of The Man of Steel in Plano. We launched a regular Sunday column to track the filming, and nearly 2,000 of you read a couple of those articles. The Man of Steel is scheduled to come out in summer 2013.

4. A vintage World War II plane in an Oswego field on June 13, and miraculously, no one was injured. There were seven people aboard the aircraft, and they all escaped unharmed. You provided us with some great pictures for that one, and we’re thankful.

5. On Nov. 8, a 12-year-old Aurora girl named Desiree Olivarez from her home. Patch readers jumped into action, spreading her story and sharing how to contact police with information. The next day, Olivarez safely returned home.

6. It may have been the photo that drew people to this one. On March 27, an Aurora man was charged with driving his car . Four people were in the house, and none of them were hurt. The driver, Antonio Velazquez, was charged with drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident and eavesdropping, believe it or not.

7. In April, Montgomery’s village board saw its most hotly-contested election in ages. Seven candidates vied for three open seats, and , two veteran trustees (Jeanne Felten and Rob Watermann) were voted out, two new ones (Stan Bond and Matt Brolley) were elected, and one mainstay, Pete Heinz, was returned to the board. We wrote a lot about this election, and most of those stories—particularly our candidate profiles of and —were very well-read.

8. The most recent story on this list: on Dec. 1, 26-year-old Kimberly Warling was in her Boulder Hill home. Police do not suspect foul play, but have not released any further information.

9. This one’s a story near and dear to our hearts, and one we’re grateful to you for reading. Montgomery 6-year-old Isaac Parris was diagnosed with a brain tumor in June. Three months, one surgery and lots of treatments later, Isaac and his family . His recovery has been remarkable, and he’s a really special kid.

10. And finally, another recent one: our Nov. 29 announcement that Gray’s Mill Restaurant on River Street . They’re reportedly doing great business, and serving delicious food.

Those were your favorite stories of the year. If you want ours, you have to go down a few more entries on the list, until you get to this: your faithful editor’s of firefighters and bystanders banding together to save a man’s life at Village Hall on Aug. 24. That heroism still speaks loud and clear.

So thank you for reading Montgomery Patch these past 11 or so months. Let’s do this again at the end of 2012.