Between 2001 and 2017, at least 75 women were strangled or smothered in Chicago. Many were found in alleys, vacant buildings, garbage cans, and other places where it was easy for their deaths to become separate case files instead of a citywide emergency. The women were daughters, mothers, artists, business owners, caregivers, and friends. Their names included Angela Ford, Gwendolyn Williams, Nancy Walker, Margaret Gomez, Teresa Bunn, Hazel Lewis, and Rio Renee Holyfield.
In 2018, the Chicago Tribune identified 75 women whose cases showed a devastating pattern. 25 cases had been closed, while more than two thirds remained unsolved. Families and advocates had long questioned whether some of the murders were connected. The term "Chicago Strangler" became shorthand for those fears, but Chicago police have said there is no evidence that one person killed every woman in the group. The available evidence points to an even more difficult possibility: some cases may be linked, some may involve multiple offenders, and far too many families are still waiting for answers.
We discuss the women at the heart of these cases, the investigation that revealed the scale of the failures, and the work advocates continue to do to make sure they are not forgotten.
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