Chicago Police

Chicago Police Review Unsolved Deaths of 55 Women for Possibility of a Serial Killer

The department confirmed Tuesday that it was again looking into the slayings of 55 women in the city

Chicago police are reviewing dozens of unsolved deaths in the city to see if there’s any evidence that may lead them to a possible serial killer.

The department confirmed Tuesday that it was again looking into the slayings of 55 women in the city.

As first reported by the Chicago Tribune, a team of up to six detectives will re-examine forensic evidence in each of the cases. Though no evidence of one or possibly more serial killers has been found in connection with their deaths, it remains unclear what the newest review will find. 

In January 2018, an investigation by the Tribune found that at least 75 women had been strangled or smothered since 2001, though arrests had been made in just a third of the cases.

The newspaper reported that the women's bodies were found in vacant buildings, alleys, garbage cans and snow banks. Many of the women struggled with drugs or prostitution, while some had no arrest records. Chicago police said at the time they found no evidence of a serial killer.

The newspaper's analysis of medical examiner records and public crime reports also found that the women ranged in age from 18 to 58 and most were African-American.

Autopsies showed some women were also raped and beaten. Others were gagged, had plastic bags tightened around their heads, suffered severe head injuries and bruises over their bodies.

Since then, four more victims have been discovered between May and September 2018, the Tribune reported. The bodies were found outdoors on the South and West Sides, some just miles apart.

The police department had formed a task force when the bodies of dozens of women were found in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The task force solved the slayings of 40 women, but it was eventually disbanded.

Kaethe Morris Hoffer, executive director of the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, said it's a staggering number of cases.

"It is odd how easy it is to disrupt people's sense of comfort when a large number of people are all killed at once," she said. "It is likewise upsetting to realize how, if you spread out over a long period of time, how inured people are to the murdering of women, particularly marginalized women."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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