Family and friends of Afrikka Hardy remembered her as a young woman with good intentions, saying she dreamed of one day running a daycare.
Candles lit up streets on Chicago’s West Side Tuesday at a vigil for Hardy, flames flickering for a young life cut short in a terribly violent way.
“It broke our hearts,” said Hardy’s cousin Elizabeth Carpenter.
Hardy was killed by a suspected serial killer in Northwest Indiana. Her body was found strangled in a motel room in Hammond and police suspect her killer in at least six other murders.
Police say Darren D. Vann led police on a bloody scavenger hunt in Northwest Indiana, pointing them to bodies of several of his alleged victims scattered in basements and empty, run-down buildings, authorities said.
Police have connected Vann, 43, to seven victims and “we have no idea how many more” are out there, one detective said. Vann allegedly admitted to killings dating back 20 years.
Prosecutors charged him with murder and robbery Monday afternoon in connection with Hardy’s death.
Family members of Hardy say they are heartbroken. They describe how she used to travel to Chicago every weekend to spend time with her youngest cousins.
“All the time, all the time,” said her grandmother Deborah Allen. “Every day until she was gone. She left that Sunday and that was the last team we heard from her.”
