IL IL - Kevin Clewer, 31, & Brad Winters, 38, Chicago, March 2003 & Aug 2004

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CHICAGO (CBS) — Nine years ago today Chicago learned of a violent murder in a neighborhood considered to be among the safest. Kevin Clewer had been stabbed to death the night before in his apartment in the 3400 block of north Elaine Place. The killing was especially brutal – Clewer, 31, suffered more than three dozen stab wounds.

(snip)

But now, we’ve learned that Chicago Police did locate Fernando, questioned him and administered a polygraph test. A source says CPD released Fernando after he passed at least one polygraph test.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/03/25/9-years-later-new-evidence-arises-in-kevin-clewer-murder/

The article goes on to say the Morton College Institute for Cold Case Solution in Cicero is working on the case at the family's request. According to the executive director, George Seibel:
“After holding him for several days and questioning him, they (CPD detectives) became convinced that Fernando was a material witness and not a suspect,” said Seibel.
According to Seibel, a different individual who was with Clewer on the night of the murder was questioned, but not regarded as a suspect. Seibel believes this man deserves a second look.
 
This is an update article from the Chicago CBS channel:

March 30, 2011
CHICAGO (CBS) – Seven years after Kevin Clewer was found brutally stabbed to death in his apartment in Boystown, and fears erupted about a serial killer in the neighborhood, the case remains unsolved.
Also still unsolved is the case of theatre director Brad Winters, who was found stabbed to death in his Lincoln Park neighborhood home in 2003.
Clewer’s body was found by his father on March 24, 2004, in his third-floor apartment in at 3444 N. Elaine Pl. His family said he had been at the clubs on Halsted Street the night before, and his family became concerned and came to check on him when he didn’t show up for work.
With the help of witnesses, their investigation eventually zeroed-in on a “person of interest” last seen with Clewer, 31. A widely circulated composite sketch identified the man as “Fernando,” described by police as white or Hispanic, 5 foot 7, about 25 years old, with an athletic build and dark wavy hair with a Hispanic or European-Spanish accent.
But the investigation stalled.


<modsnip>

Anyone with information about the Clewer or Winters case should contact Chicago Police Belmont Area Detectives at (312) 744-8261. Anonymous tips can also be made to Cook County Crime Stoppers at hotline number (800) 535-STOP.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/03/30/murders-that-rocked-gay-community-unsolved-after-7-years/
 
This is one of the original articles about this murder along with the possible connection to another murder around the same time (2004). Please note that the man that was intereviewed after this tip was released and determined not to be a suspect. You may see sketch artist pictures of him asking for help in finding him. The person in the sketch artist picture is no longer considering a suspect and was questioned and released as only a possible witness. Here is the article from the Chicago Tribune:

Tip in Clewer murder
Police question man, await DNA test results
April 22, 2005|By Chicago Tribune. Redeye's Kathryn Masterson contributed.

Chicago police are questioning a man in connection with a Lakeview stabbing death that has been unsolved for 13 months.

Belmont Area detectives started interviewing the man on Wednesday after they received a tip about his possible knowledge of the March 2004 killing of Kevin Clewer, 31, sources close to the investigation said. On Thursday evening, detectives were awaiting results of DNA testing, sources said.

Police were cautious about the prospect that the tip might solve the case.

Clewer was discovered by his father, Jim, in his apartment in the 3400 block of North Elaine Place. Police suspect he was killed a short time before his body was found. Clewer, an openly gay man, was a senior cost analyst at Flextronics, an electronic manufacturing services company in Elk Grove Village.


<modsnip>

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-04-22/news/0504220355_1_police-question-man-gay-man-tip
 
This is the most recent article I could find about the case from the CBS station in Chicago---May 2013:

CHICAGO (CBS) &#8212; Nine years ago today Chicago learned of a violent murder in a neighborhood considered to be among the safest. Kevin Clewer had been stabbed to death the night before in his apartment in the 3400 block of north Elaine Place. The killing was especially brutal &#8211; Clewer, 31, suffered more than three dozen stab wounds.
At the time of the killing, police identified a known Boystown hustler and escort, &#8220;Fernando&#8221; as the prime suspect in Clewer&#8217;s murder and circulated fliers with a sketch of the man. Detectives scoured the city and conducted a nationwide, even international manhunt for the man for months with no luck.
But now, we&#8217;ve learned that Chicago Police did locate Fernando, questioned him and administered a polygraph test. A source says CPD released Fernando after he passed at least one polygraph test.

<modsnip>


http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/03/25/9-years-later-new-evidence-arises-in-kevin-clewer-murder/
 
Very sad and tragic part of this story is that both the parents of Kevin Clewer died within one year of his death. Here is the story from the Chicago Tribune:

Chicago Tribune
Kevin Clewer's father dies
May 12, 2005|By From news services.

More than a year after his son's unsolved murder, James Clewer still spent his days rehashing the circumstances in his head and canvassing the Boystown neighborhood for leads. Clewer found his son, Kevin, 31, stabbed to death in March 2004 in his son's apartment.

On Wednesday morning, James Clewer, of Orland Park died of a heart attack at work. He was planning to celebrate his 57th birthday Monday. He also was mourning the death two weeks ago of his former wife, Kevin's mother. Pamela Lynn Cunningham had been ill with pneumonia and complications from cancer and died of heart failure.

Clewer suffered a heart attack at Terry's Lincoln Mercury, where he was a service technician, his son Ron Clewer said. A spokesman from the Cook County medical examiner's office confirmed his death.

<modsnip>

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-05-12/news/0505120259_1_heart-attack-gay-failure
 
This article from the Windy City Times is interesting as police claim that 3 separate murders of gay men all around the same time, are not related:

Windy City Times 11 -17 -2004
Police: No Link Between Murders of 3 Gay Men
by Andrew Davis

At this point and time, there is no direct connection between the murders of Chicagoans Charles Gibson, Brad Winters, and Kevin Clewer.
That was the statement from Area 3 Commander Michael Chasen at a meeting on Nov. 10 at the office of Ald. Mary Ann Smith, 5533 N. Broadway. The meeting, to which only Windy City Times and the Chicago Free Press were invited, was called to address what the police call erroneous details in an account released by WBBM Newsradio 780.

The radio report&#8212;which has been syndicated nationally&#8212;hinted at the possibility of a gay serial killer and stated, among other things, that the three victims frequented the same neighborhood bar ( Little Jim's ) .

Police found Gibson, 54, on Oct. 31 in his apartment at 1052 W. Balmoral. A friend of Gibson called police to check on him; the building manager and a locksmith were also summoned to the victim's place. When the door was opened, they found Gibson lying naked in the hallway; a seven-inch knife was recovered at the scene.

Clewer, 31, was murdered on March 24. His body, which had been repeatedly stabbed, was found in his third-floor apartment at 3444 N. Elaine Place. Winters, 38, was killed Aug. 17, 2003; he was also stabbed repeatedly and beaten.

<modsnip>


http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=6632
 
clewer.jpg

Kevin Clewer


03.24.2003 - Kevin Clewer, 31, 3444 N. Elaine Place; senior cost analyst at Flextronics in Elk Grove Village. Suffered more than 40 stab wounds to the back. Found by his father who went to check on Clewer after he failed to show up for work. His family told LE he had been to the clubs on Halsted the previous night.

08.17.2003 - Brad Winters, 38, 538 W. Belden Ave; a director at the Terrapin Theatre. Beaten and stabbed at least 24 times; suffered "wounds of torture".

10.31.2004 - SOLVED Charles Gibson, 54, 1052 W. Balmoral; stabbed to death. Found lying naked in his hallway by a concerned friend. A 7" knife was found at the scene.

LE found no sign of forced entry in the Clewer and Winters murders. Winters' cell phone and wallet were missing.
 
BradWinters.jpg.300x331_q100.jpg

Brad Nelson Winters

Terrapin Theatre Artistic Director Found Murdered
By Katherine Burke - Posted Aug. 26, 2003, midnight
backstage

According to the Chicago Police Department, Winters failed to show up for work at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. Coworkers called his building manager, who then notified police. Police arrived at 12:30 p.m. and found Winters' body in the bedroom with evidence of strangulation and stab wounds to the left side of his neck, his right shoulder and right chest. No signs of forced entry were apparent. Winters was pronounced dead by the medical examiner at 4:30. No arrests have been made.

"Brad was an inspiration and a joy to work with in the theatre and in life," said Terrapin Company and Board member Susie Griffith. "His insight and humor gave Terrapin a vision and a sense of community that launched us forward."
Who was Brad Winters

by Grant Pick
Winters's body had been found in the sleeping alcove of his studio apartment in a courtyard building at 526 W. Belden. He was naked except for a pair of socks, and eight stab wounds were visible on his head, neck, right cheek, shoulder, and upper back. There was blood on his hands and blood all over the apartment. The medical examiner would rule Brad Winters's death a homicide by stabbing, with strangulation a contributing factor. He was 38, a short, impish man with an alabaster complexion and strawberry blonde hair. He'd grown up on a dairy farm in Salesville, Ohio, but it was always obvious to his family that his heart was somewhere else. As a teenager he joined a drama program in Cambridge, a nearby town. "I realized he was good when he was in this play at Cambridge and he had to eat an apple," says his mother, Lathiel. "He did it very well. He hated apples."

Winters studied theater at Wright State University in Dayton and came to Chicago in 1992. By day he planned outings, parties, and shows for the elderly residents of the Hallmark, an assisted-living facility in Lakeview, and at night he took classes at Second City. Soon he began to act and direct around town. In 1997, when he was asked to direct a play for Terrapin, he jumped at the chance.
Additional links:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2004-08-18/news/0408190007_1_crime-lab-stabbed-detectives

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-08-22/news/0308220099_1_mr-winters-terrapin-theater
 
Article on Clewer's family commitment to solving this crime:

Date: Thursday, June 23, 2005
Edition: RedEye
Page: 2
Source: Kathryn Masterson.

DEVOTION LIVES ON ---- IN LIFE AN DEATH
It's so incredibly unfair that Jim Clewer and Pam Cunningham won't be marching in the Pride Parade this Sunday.
Last year was the first Pride for both, though it was hardly a celebration.
Jim, Pam and other family members were there in the hopes that someone could help them solve the murder of their 31-year-old son Kevin, who was stabbed to death a few months before in his Boystown home.
Now, Pam and Jim are both gone. Pam, a 56-year-old antiques shop owner, died unexpectedly in April. A month later, as the family was still dealing with the shock of her death, Jim had a heart attack at work. He was 56 too. They left behind another son, a wife, a boyfriend and a community of people touched by the love and determination they showed for their family.
By now, most people have learned that life isn't fair. Bad things happen to good people. Split-second accidents can be fatal, terrible things are done to children, and innocent people are hurt or killed. But the sudden loss of these two people--the two deaths coming so close together after such a brutal, unsolved crime had already devastated the family--is moving in a deeper way.
Jim and Pam were relentless, obsessive even, in the search for answers to who killed their son. It was almost impossible to go to an event in the gay community--Pride, Northalsted Market Days, anti-violence vigils--without seeing them in their matching white T-shirts with a picture of Kevin on the front. Along with their son Ron, they canvassed the neighborhood for any leads or scraps of information, putting fliers in storefronts and on car windshields.
They cried at memorials, describing their "hell on Earth," and they railed against an anonymous killer and vowed they would find him one day. Jim stopped people with his soft-spoken and heartbreaking introduction: "Hello, my name is Jim Clewer. My son was murdered down here."
But their story isn't just a tragedy.
It's a story about standing up for your family and accepting them for who they are, even if you don't always understand them.
Rick Garcia, of gay rights group Equality Illinois, wiped away tears as he described the impact Jim and Pam's devotion and tenacity had on Chicago's gay community.
"I think they showed gay people there are loving parents who will go to their dying days for their children," Garcia said. "I think they showed all parents in Illinois what it means to love your kids."
Every time Pam and Jim talked in public about Kevin's death, they included a message for parents of gay children: Love them for who they are. Be happy when they're happy.
Pam, who hugged everyone she met, was incredulous that parents could abandon their children because of their sexual orientation. In her mind, that treatment was the same as killing your child.
Jim, a handyman who fixed cars for a living and joked that, unlike his sons, he couldn't cook, admitted to people that he struggled at first to understand Kevin's sexuality. "Kev, why can't you just like women," he said he asked Kevin. The response, "Dad, why can't you start dating guys?" caused something to click in his mind. From then on, he viewed his son's sexuality as fixed as his own.
After Pam and Jim died, their son Ron heard from a number of people who had been touched by his family. Community leaders, police, store owners and others reached out to say how sorry they were. Many said they couldn't believe Jim and Pam were gone. Some told Ron he needed to keep fighting to find an answer to his brother's death.
"In a way, I'm really proud of my parents," Ron said. "They really impacted people beyond our immediate family."
If you're at the parade this Sunday, keep an eye out for Ron, Jim's wife Marilyn and their supporters in matching white T-shirts with a picture of Kevin on the front. They'll be passing out postcards and fliers, keeping alive Jim's and Pam's fight for their son.
 
Do we know the origin of the weapon in the Clewer case, and was it recovered ?
 
I am not sure about the weapon recovery in either of the cases. Details were sparse then and it still seems they are sparse now. I know that there was a group that did do some more outside police department investigation of this case a few years ago. There is an article above from 2013 that states " the Clewer family confirms it has enlisted the help the Morton College Institute for Cold Case Solution in Cicero. George Seibel, a former veteran Chicago Police violent crimes detective is the institute&#8217;s executive director." They may have more info then was released to the public but I don't know. From the articles, it seems both victims were stabbed and police believed that both victims knew their murders. No more details provided.
Do you have any suggestions as to how to find out more about the weapon?
 
He looked like such a wonderful happy person, I hope one day his family have the answers they are looking for.
It could easily be a serial killer as both men were gay and stabbed.
 
April 13 2019
15 years later, Kevin Clewer’s family still seeks answers in Lakeview murder
"CHICAGO — Kevin Clewer’s vicious murder is still raw for his family. It’s been 15 years since he was found dead in his Lakeview apartment, stabbed 42 times.

Relatives on Saturday handed out flyers in Boystown, near the corner of Halsted Street and Cornelia Avenue, seeking any tips that could help catch Clewer’s killer.

Police have identified a suspect known only by his first name: Fernando. A sketch artist drew a rendering of the man."
Chicago police seek public's help in 2004 stabbing death of man in Lakeview

"FERNANDO"
 
Sept 21 2022 VIDEO

''18-Year-Old Cold Case Murder Mystery Sees Significant Leads​

Kevin Clewer, 31, was out with his friends in Lake View when he met a stranger and they went back to Clewer’s place. The next day when Clewer did not show up at work, his father drove to his apartment and found his son’s body on the floor. As new details slowly emerge in the case, NBC 5 Investigates’ Rob Stafford has an update''

May 2022
Chicago Police

''Kevin Clewer was found stabbed to death in his home in the 3400 block of North Elaine Street on March 24, 2004. His case remains unsolved, but the Chicago Police Department continues to search for answers in hopes of bringing a measure of closure to Kevin's family. We ask anyone with information about these cases, or any open homicide investigation, to please call our anonymous tipline at (833) 408-0069 or send in a tip at CPDTip.com.''

 
1683677365696.png
Kevin Clewer. (Photo provided by Clewer family)
MAY 9, 2023 / 5:53 PM rbbm.
''CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Facebook post may be the break in a nearly 20-year-cold case murder in Chicago's East Lakeview community.

The body of Kevin Clewer, 31, was found by his father on Wednesday, March 24, 2004, in his third-floor apartment in at 3444 N. Elaine Pl. He h ad been brutally stabbed to death.''

''Clewer's brother, Ron, created a Facebook page to re-publicize the sketch of "Fernando." Ron Clewer said he has now received a message from someone claiming to know Fernando – and who said Fernando was the killer.

Ron Clewer said police have now identified the man - and he is waiting on the final pieces of evidence before there's an arrest.''
Fernando - and another suspect - have ties to Chicago and Puerto Rico.
Police are investigating if they were responsible for a string of similar attacks between 2003 and 2005.''
1683677292491.png

Sketch of the suspect who murdered Kevin Clewer. (Sketch provided by Clewer family)
 

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