Video Shows Vanished Grandmother Stuffed in Suitcase, Family Says

Chicago is a city where too many people get away with murder.

In fact, a recent study on gun violence from the University of Chicago Crime Lab shows only 26 percent of murder cases in 2016 were solved.

This past weekend community groups and victim’s families marched and met with law makers to voice their concerns.

“My message is let’s stop this killing," said Rev. Robin Hood. "And the only way we’re going to do it is if we have enough detectives, enough resources for them."

They are demanding more action from detectives and prosecutors.

NBC 5 sat down with one family that says there is plenty of evidence to solve their unsolved case and some of it was even caught on tape.

Teresa Smith’s mother has been missing for months. Relatives say 65-year-old Daisey Hayes walked into her Chicago Housing Authority apartment building on the night of May 1--but never walked out.

Smith says the police have told her to “be patient.”

Smith says someone anonymously sent her security video from inside the building showing a man leaving early the next morning, pulling a bulky suitcase out of the elevator toward the exit door. What looks like a bulge on the right side is visible in the footage.

Smith thinks that bulge is her mother's body, she says.

“I can see her whole leg, her whole leg print," Smith said.

How could a body fit in a suitcase that size? Teresa Smith says her mother is tiny, about 5 foot 2 inches and 85 pounds.

Smith says she doesn't know where the man in the video is now, but that he was briefly in police custody.

“They kept him for 48 hours sometime in May but then let him go,” she said.

NBC 5 is not naming the man because he has not been charged. But NBC 5 Investigates found that in 1985 he was charged with two counts of murder but not convicted.

Prosecutors dropped the case after a witness failed to show up in court on several occasions. In 2012 he was charged with battery but again the charges were dropped.

Chicago police would only say that they have identified a person of interest in this case, have spoken to prosecutors and are waiting test results from the crime lab.

The family of Daisy Hayes say they have waited long enough.

“How patient would you be if it was your mother," Smith said.