Authorities in Chicago are looking into whether a serial killer is responsible for 51 cases of unsolved murders of mostly Black women.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports Chicago police were prompted to investigate the killings dating back to 2001 due to increased pressure from local activists. Additionally, the work of Virginia-based nonprofit the Murder Accountability Project indicated in a report the 51 cases were of the work of a possible serial killer.
"If you look at these, at the nature of the cases, it’s classic. It couldn’t be more serial-looking,” Thomas Hargrove, the Murder Accountability Project’s founder, told the Sun-Times. “It’s got every element for a classic pattern.”
The majority of the victims from the cases were Black women. Hargrove noticed seven of the victims were disposed of in trashcans. Some of the women were sex workers; numerous victims were found on the South and West sides of Chicago, and a number of the women were raped and beaten.
Two of the victims stood out among the 51. Victim Teresa Bunn was eight-months pregnant when her body was discovered inside of a blazing trash bin 12 years ago. Another woman, Hazel Marion Lewis, was also found in a burning trashcan.
Women were found in alleyways, abandoned buildings and open lots, as well. "Murder tends to be an indoor sport, but these cases were entirely out of doors," Hargrove, a former Washington journalist, said in an interview with NPR. "Also, there were frequently signs of sexual activity – not necessarily voluntary activity."
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On April 11, community activists confronted Police Supt. Eddie Johnson at a board meeting. The department will launch a review into the murders, Vice News reports.
Johnson reportedly does not believe the killings were a part of a serial murder spree, but Hargrove thinks otherwise.
“It actually stretches credulity to imagine that these 51 women were killed by 51 separate men,” Hargrove said.
Anthony Guglielmi, the chief spokesman for the police department, told the Sun-Times the department would coordinate its investigation with the FBI. There will be a thorough review of fingernails, semen and blood samples, he said. Police reportedly collected the DNA of 21 people other than the victims.
The report hinged on an algorithm that alerted Hargrove to "a pattern of unsolved murders among women who were asphyxiated or strangled."
Claims suggesting the women were killed by 51 different people were, as mentioned before, dismissed. Hargrove turned over his findings to the police in March. The Sun-Times reports he also gave the report to city official Ald. Pat Dowell and Illinois Senator Patricia Van Pelt.
"If you look at a large group of unsolved female murders within the same geography that have the same characteristics, most of the time, you're going to find serial activity," Hargrove told NPR. "It could be one guy. It could be two or three guys. Serial murder is far more common than anyone really wants to admit."
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