Nov 3, 2006 5:59 pm US/Central
West Suburban Pizza Delivery Driver Found Dead
Mother Of Four Was Covering Son's Shift
by Mike Puccinelli
(CBS)
A mother of four was found murdered in the Western Suburbs.
Police say the 41-year-old woman was killed Thursday night while working as a pizza delivery driver.
CBS 2's West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli reports that the woman wasn't even supposed to be working last night, because one of her sons was. But when he couldn't make it, she went to work in his place.
DuPage County deputies dusted a truck for prints, walked the perimeter of a crime scene and closely examined a board recovered from the scene of a murder.
They are trying to find out who killed
Karen Hassan. Sheriff's deputies say the
St. Charles woman appeared to have been struck in the head.
Uzma Mangi of
Rosati's Pizza, was one of the last people to see the victim alive. Hassan worked for her delivering pizzas.
"She was a helluva good woman. I can't tell you how nice she was," said Mangi.
Last night she left on a delivery to a business on Powis Road in Unincorporated West Chicago.
"She didn't come back for half an hour and we worried and after 45 minutes we called the police," Mangi said.
Sources say a man borrowed a phone from a valet working at a strip club across the street from the crime scene. The suspect asked Rosati's to deliver the pizza to
Deeke's Firewood.
At around midnight, Chris Hassan arrived at Deeke's after learning his mother had been found on the property.
"We just tried to stay together and hoped that she'd be OK," Hassan said.
An ambulance was never called, and Chris says he knew then that his mother was gone.
"I haven't heard what happened to her yet. So I mean once that happens I don't know I was telling my brother I just might break," said Hassan.
Hassan says police told him they have a suspect. Sheriff's deputies would not confirm that. What is clear is that Hassan is not yet ready to say goodbye to his mom for the last time.
"I just can't see my mother like this. I don't want to think of it like this," said Hassan.
He said his youngest brother is in jail on drug charges. Hassan thinks his mother may have been killed by someone trying to send a message to his brother not to testify.
Sheriff's deputies would not confirm any of that.
(CBS 2, the Naperville Sun and the Aurora Beacon-News are news partners covering stories in the western suburbs of Chicago.)
