Jun 3, 2009 3:23 pm US/Central
Body Found In Oak Forest Car ID'd As Missing Woman
MIDLOTHIAN, Ill. (Sun-Times Media Wire) ―
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Irma Rodriguez disappeared from her home in Oak Forest on Sunday.
Oak Forest Police
The body found with multiple gunshot wounds in the trunk of a car in south suburban Midlothian Monday night has been positively identified as Irma Rodriguez, the 44-year-old Oak Forest woman who was reported missing last weekend.
Rodriguez's family called police about 10:30 p.m. Sunday after they found her purse inside her house but her car missing, acting Oak Forest police Chief David DeMarco said. They couldn't reach her on her cell phone, which the family still hasn't found, DeMarco said. Sunday night, neighbor Kurt DeGrott saw Rodriguez's children arguing with her husband, Norberto Rodriguez.
About 8 p.m. Monday,
an investigator found the body of a woman shot multiple times in the trunk of Rodriguez's 2002 Grand Am, parked at 148th Street and Kilpatrick Avenue in Midlothian. An autopsy found she had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and the Cook County Medical Examiner's office ruled the woman's death a homicide.
A medical examiner's office spokesman said Wednesday afternoon that the body had been positively identified as that of Irma Rodriguez. Earlier in the day another medical examiner's spokesman said that her family was expected to identify the body Wednesday afternoon.
Irma Rodriguez filed for divorce from Norberto Rodriguez in Sept. 2007 after 13 years of marriage, records show. They were due in family court Tuesday morning at the Daley Center.
Norberto Rodriguez is a former Chicago Police officer once assigned to the Harrison District and fired in Dec. 1998 after getting into a scuffle with his wife a year earlier. Another woman sent him flowers, according to court records.
Irma Rodriguez was shot in the hand during the incident, but her husband was acquitted of all charges -- which included attempted first-degree murder -- during a bench trial, court records show. Norberto Rodriguez threatened to kill himself and his wife during the confrontation, police said at the time.
Irma Arroyo was born in Puerto Rico in April 1964 and married Martin Medina in 1983. Medina is the father of her elder son and her daughter. Martin Medina filed for divorce in early 1994, court records show.
Norberto Rodriguez and Irma Rosa Medina were married in Chicago on Oct. 15, 1994, according to public documents. Their son was born in Chicago in 1995.
Police said they have no suspects and no one is in custody in connection with the death. Investigators have received a warrant to search Rodriguez's home, DeMarco said.
The South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force is assisting in the investigation. About 20 officers are working the case. One officer canvassing the area found the Grand Am, DeMarco said.
Court accounts show Irma Rodriguez struggled to provide for her family, filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2003 when she owed about $37,000 on three credit cards and a timeshare in Florida, according to public records. At the time of the filing, she had been working as a secretary at Palos Community Hospital for about two and a half years, according to court records.
Rodriguez's daughter will be a senior this fall at Oak Forest High School and is on the school's badminton team. Her youngest brother, an eighth-grader at Hille Middle School, was supposed to graduate Tuesday night, Forest Ridge Elementary School District 142 Supt. Margaret Longo said.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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