6 found dead in Chicago home
CHICAGO -- Chicago police on Thursday found the bodies of four men, one woman and a child inside a home on the city's South Side in what they say could be a murder-suicide, even as they added extra patrols in the neighborhood.
Standing in the street in the well-tended Gage Park neighborhood, interim police Superintendent John Escalante told reporters that police checked the house Thursday afternoon after receiving a call from a co-worker worried about someone who lived there. The person had missed two days of work, which was "highly unusual and very suspicious," Escalante said.
Police arrived at the single-family brick home just after 1 p.m. They looked inside and saw one body, entered and found five more bodies. The bodies had signs of trauma, but authorities have not determined the cause of death.
Authorities were still working to identify the dead. Escalante said it's probable they were all family members. The child is thought to be 10 to 12 years old. Police are trying to locate other relatives, Escalante said.
"At this time we don't believe that there is any threat to the surrounding community or any known threat right now to the immediate neighborhood," Escalante said. "This is going to be an investigation that is going to take some time."
In the neighborhood, three teenage boys said they were worried about a classmate at Rachel Carson Elementary School who lived in the home. They feared he was among the dead.
"His favorite sport was soccer," Aaron Villazana said of his friend, and Emmanuel Hernandez chimed: "He'd get out of school and play soccer. ... He liked sharing."
"I just saw him three days ago. He was walking by. He told me, 'How are your basketball games going?'" said Jesus Anderade.
Earlier, Rosa De La Torre's 13-year-old son comforted her as she sat down and sobbed near the home of her friend, whom she thought could be among the victims.
Another neighbor, Lettie Magas, 68, lamented what she said has been an increase in crime in recent years.
"I feel safe as long as it's daylight out, but I won't come out at night, no way," Magas said.
Markita Williams, a neighbor, told the Chicago Sun-Times a family had lived in the home for at least the last three years, reports CBS Chicago.
The family included a woman with two sons, who were grade-school age, and her parents.
The woman was separated or divorced from her husband, who has since gone home to Mexico, Williams said.
Williams said she was unaware of any problems at the home and didn't recall police being called there before. Williams said her 21-year-old son last saw one of the young neighbor boys at 7 a.m. Tuesday.
At noon Wednesday, Williams said she knocked on her neighbor's door because she noticed the grandfather's van parked on the street and was worried it might be towed because the city was due to do some street repairs, she said.
"I didn't get an answer," Williams said. She noticed something else unusual -- the curtains were all closed.
"They keep their curtains open all the time," Williams said. Williams said she looked out her window about 5 p.m. Wednesday and noticed that the van still hadn't been moved.