IL IL - 75 Women in Chicago Strangled / Who is the Chicago Strangler, Serial Killer?

Does anyone know if there were any updates about this case. I know there were two other cases of women found on fire but those were on the south side (2007) and occurred a day apart (11/13 and 11/14). I wonder if these three are related. Burning is a very specific way to dispose of someone.


Adding.....
Burned body found inside Avondale dumpster

By ABC7
Monday, May 20, 2013
May 20, 2013 (CHICAGO)

Firefighters found the charred remains late Sunday the 3100-block of North Kimball in the Avondale neighborhood. They were putting out a fire in an alley when they saw the body.

The victim had not been identified and the death had not been declared a homicide by Monday morning.

Burned body found inside Avondale dumpster | ABC7 Chicago | abc7chicago.com

Firefighters found her body as they extinguished a fire in the trash bin in the 3100 block of North Kimball Avenue about 11:55 p.m. Sunday. The woman, who is 17 to 30 years old, suffered burns over most of her body, police said.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office ruled her death a homicide and determined she had died from strangulation.

Police Ask For Help Identifying Woman Found in Avondale Trash Bin

Edit to add: I remember years ago there being another victim in the same general vicinity found burned in a dumpster. It had to be in the early to mid 1980's, if I recall correctly.
 
May be nothing, but the murders where the victims were found in garbage cans occurred

9/10/2018 Monday

11/13/2007 Tuesday

11/14/2007 Wednesday

7/15/2004 Thursday

7/14/2006 Friday

8/16/2003 Saturday


The outlier is 3/3/2017 Friday
Possibly, someone who is off for summer vacation? As in (I hate to say this) teacher, administrator???? Outlier = spring break?? November = Veterans day?? I believe the colleges might have different schedules then the traditional grade school or high school's schedules. Maybe/Maybe Not...Food for thought.
 
New to the forum. Issue was brought up by a patient of mine. I live in the city of Chicago and serve on the south side.

sounds likely to be more than 1 person responsible, not just 1 perpetrator. But Certainly not 51 different perpetrators.

my patient brought up a good point that many of these victims could be human trafficked as it is at large in Chicago and despite popular belief, not always children/teenagers but adults as well.

Darren Deon Van from Gary, Indiana area (very close proximity to Chicago) who was arrested in 10/2014 for similar MO could be accountable for some of these prior to 2009?

It is hard to make sense of the meaningfulness of the 21 DNA samples that do not match each other. I guess I would not rely heavily on the collection thoroughness given these are Chicago’s invisible persons and crime rate is high w/ limited staffing/resources.

Finally, it’s hard to find any background on any of these women. Especially in the early 2000s. Anyone have any information they can share?
I've thought for a while now what this case needs is a Netflix docuseries or HBO, someone going into the neighborhood to meet with the families and humanize their stories so that some media attention these cases never got finally spurs some action or leads.
 
there is a lot to know about Chicago's policing situation that is appalling. I'm talking about a
systemic problem. everyone is touched by this. The police Department is the regulator for society. When they are lacking, society suffers. When the money isn't there, when redtape tangles very procedure and communities have a lack of available police to do the work...
even nice neighborhoods like mine are suffering from a lack of police presence.

Also the media doesn't follow these stories as they once did, there is a disconnect. With all the gang killings , its difficult to keep up with all the murders happening all around us.

violent crime in my neighborhood is up 27 % this year .

There needs to be a bigger media interest and more emphasis on cold cases and arrests.

mOO
 
This woman was found in the river directly behind the high school attended by Vanessa Rojakovich who was found strangled and wrapped in plastic, in the same river several bridges over.
 
Also these are not bad area's of Chicago..these neighborhoods have a very liberal base, a good median income per household and a good deal of private home and condo ownership. While there are hot-spots and some large rentals with many moving in and out , it is a very
diverse community with blue-collar to wealthy. Vanessa Rojakovich was not in a gang . Her murder went largely unpublicized and there are no updates regarding her death. mOO
 
in November, interesting. at least a shrink or profiler might find it interesting I believe shrinks will tell us that a repeated pattern like murdering in the month of November could even be subconscious and could correlate to something.

my belief is basically people don't do this kind of thing just once, so it makes sense that other cases with a signature like this are related. mOO
 
It could be. This is another case of a woman found burned after death. Two of the other ones that I researched were also done in November.
You're totally right, I remember reading about November cases involving burned bodies and strangulation. The difference, which this article calls out, is she doesn't fit the previous victim description. She wasn't in a high-risk situation.

Historically people active in this thread have suspected someone who canvasses neighborhoods looking for "easy targets" in high-risk groups like drugs and prostitution. But if this UNSUB is getting more opportunistic, is getting more confident, maybe there is new thrill involved in choosing a different target? Maybe the high-risk victims are no longer "attractive"?

I read in John Douglas' Mindhunter that he found serial killers often killed because their true target, the person or persons they actually hated, were too removed or impossible to harm, which is why they take their anger out on others. What if that applies in this case where they use high-risk victims but they're not a "prize" the way an attractive, young, and essentially "normal" girl would be, perhaps out of insecurity, lack of confidence, and romantic disappointment.

Consider that both BTK and GSK calmed down because they had families and wives who basically forced them into acting better. Imagine if they never found that stability, they probably would have committed a lot more crimes. So in this case, what if this is a man who is deeply unhappy and taking out his anger on an alternative subject because the originator or originators of his anger are too far away/out of reach? And maybe November has something to do with it. Of course, this is all assuming it's the same person.
 
You're totally right, I remember reading about November cases involving burned bodies and strangulation. The difference, which this article calls out, is she doesn't fit the previous victim description. She wasn't in a high-risk situation.

Historically people active in this thread have suspected someone who canvasses neighborhoods looking for "easy targets" in high-risk groups like drugs and prostitution. But if this UNSUB is getting more opportunistic, is getting more confident, maybe there is new thrill involved in choosing a different target? Maybe the high-risk victims are no longer "attractive"?

I read in John Douglas' Mindhunter that he found serial killers often killed because their true target, the person or persons they actually hated, were too removed or impossible to harm, which is why they take their anger out on others. What if that applies in this case where they use high-risk victims but they're not a "prize" the way an attractive, young, and essentially "normal" girl would be, perhaps out of insecurity, lack of confidence, and romantic disappointment.

Consider that both BTK and GSK calmed down because they had families and wives who basically forced them into acting better. Imagine if they never found that stability, they probably would have committed a lot more crimes. So in this case, what if this is a man who is deeply unhappy and taking out his anger on an alternative subject because the originator or originators of his anger are too far away/out of reach? And maybe November has something to do with it. Of course, this is all assuming it's the same person.

This is very true. Another possibility could be (as you stated about BTK and GSK) that this killer has a family or a more stable life and doesn't have the same chances they had when single or employed at a different job, etc. Maybe after trying to abate their urges, they couldn't resist their urges anymore. That could explain why the most recent victim didn't fit the description of the previous victims. I wonder if location is also a factor that could assist in finding out about the killer/killers. I know that some killers will travel far and wide to find victims (Israel Keyes) but then you also have some that don't travel outside of a certain radius (GSK). Does anyone know if there is any correlation between keeping a modus operandi and the perimeters in which a killer is willing to travel to find victims?
 
This is very true. Another possibility could be (as you stated about BTK and GSK) that this killer has a family or a more stable life and doesn't have the same chances they had when single or employed at a different job, etc. Maybe after trying to abate their urges, they couldn't resist their urges anymore. That could explain why the most recent victim didn't fit the description of the previous victims. I wonder if location is also a factor that could assist in finding out about the killer/killers. I know that some killers will travel far and wide to find victims (Israel Keyes) but then you also have some that don't travel outside of a certain radius (GSK). Does anyone know if there is any correlation between keeping a modus operandi and the perimeters in which a killer is willing to travel to find victims?
All I've ever heard or read is the claim that they operate locally. It's to my knowledge rare to find out a killer travels extensively to kill; usually distance between crimes is because of moving around or a job rather than intentional travel, like a Samuel Little. Bundy might be one of the rarer instances where he specifically traveled around and switched to a whole other side of the country to commit his crimes.

The thing about these crimes is they seem like they're committed by a local who understands the area. It would be very hard to drive into a city and know which areas are safe to canvas as this person has. Unless they're like a Gary resident who travels into the city for work. That's another consideration: local commuter.
 
Israel k, major traveller...but yeah, ridgeway , btk...local...mOO
 
MAP is doing some great data analysis - very strange it is being doubted on WS of all places.

I cannot comprehend a place where only 17% of murders are solved (it's 96% here, in cold Scandinavia). With a police force and coroners so overburdened I cannot help but think how thorough they were when collecting DNA from murder victims and crime scenes? It sounds just dandy when they say "they compared DNA" but unless they were very thorough when collecting it, it doesn't mean much really. I'm convinced there are two serial killers out there.
 
MAP is doing some great data analysis - very strange it is being doubted on WS of all places.

I cannot comprehend a place where only 17% of murders are solved (it's 96% here, in cold Scandinavia). With a police force and coroners so overburdened I cannot help but think how thorough they were when collecting DNA from murder victims and crime scenes? It sounds just dandy when they say "they compared DNA" but unless they were very thorough when collecting it, it doesn't mean much really. I'm convinced there are two serial killers out there.
I've found in at least two cities that MAP information is incorrect in the system. They show cases as unsolved that were solved like 20 years ago in one instance. In another they had incorrect information about victims. I'm not the most fond of MPA until those disparities are answered for.

But as for Chicago, yes, the unsolved rates are hard to deal with. They're so incredibly low. Part of that is about demographics. The police-community relationship in Chicago is poor to put it lightly. Many of the homicides in certain neighborhoods are hard to track because they're gun deaths and happen quickly without witnesses. If there are witnesses, the communities don't want to speak up to police because of trust issues, fear, etc. Chicago needs to work to correct its problems with poverty, joblessness, educational resources, food resources, housing, transit, etc. for many communities before things will improve. Cops going door-to-door asking who saw what isn't enough there.
 

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