Local News

Lane Bryant Murders Remain Unsolved

TINLEY PARK, Ill. (AP) ― There have been scores of memorials and five funerals in the month since a lone gunman killed four shoppers and a store manager at a suburban Chicago strip mall.

What there hasn't been is an arrest.

Despite 1,400 tips and detailed sketches -- down to colored beads in the suspect's braided hair -- it's not clear Tinley Park police are any closer to catching the man who murdered the women on Feb. 2 during a botched robbery at a Lane Bryant clothing store.

The odds of catching him would seem to diminish with each passing day, and Police Chief Michael O'Connell has acknowledged the case could take years to solve.

But he also bristles at any suggestion the trail may have run cold.

"I'm very comfortable we're gonna catch that guy," he told the SouthtownStar. "We're confident that we're going to get him. ... This is not a cold case, nowhere near it."

But if they do catch the gunman, it will be with less manpower.

While there were 50 detectives during the first three weeks of the investigation working with the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force, there are now as few as 20 officers on any given day, Tinley Park Police Cmdr. Rick Bruno said.

And it's also not clear what, if any, DNA evidence is available.
 
O'Connell won't discuss evidence in detail, though police have said the store's front doors were sent to a state police lab to check them for useable fingerprints.

"(Evidence) is something we have to keep really close to our vest," O'Connell said. "The offender doesn't know what evidence we have gathered, what evidence was left behind."

Much of what is known about the killer comes from a sole woman who survived the attack.

She has identified the shooter as a black man, between 5 feet 9 and 6 feet tall and about 200 pounds with thick braided hair and a receding hairline. Police sketches based on her description have featured on posters and giant billboards around the Chicago area.

Criminologist Joseph Weis says Tinley Park investigators may face daunting obstacles compared to other murders. Research shows most murders are solved within 48 hours.

"But that's because most murders are incredibly easy to solve," he explained. "Usually it's the husband that kills his wife then dials 911 with the phone in one hand and his gun in the other. Cases where a stranger kills apparently at random are much harder."

Another criminologist, Gregg McCrary, said the Lane Bryant investigation may be getting to the point where detectives are waiting for a lucky break -- a lead from out of the blue.

"You're hoping for a cold DNA hit, or that somebody who knows something is arrested and wants to make a deal," he said, "or that someone who knows something acts out of conscience -- if they have a conscience."

(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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