A mother of five was shot and killed in a Woodlawn alley. Why did it take police 10 hours to find her body?
As Chicago police investigate the murder of a mother of five who was found shot to death in a Woodlawn alley earlier this month, neighbors are wondering why it took investigators 10 hours to find her body.
Moments after shots rang out near 64th and Drexel around 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 18, an off-duty Chicago police officer called 911. Despite the officer telling dispatchers the number of shots and where the gunfire came from, police did not find Kiara Jenkins' body until 10 hours later.
"The police didn't get into the area until the afternoon," said one neighbor who asked to remain anonymous.
Neighbors are questioning what went wrong and what police did after the first 911 call.
"It's just the safety of our neighborhood; her being a mother," the anonymous neighbor said. "Maybe she could've had a chance."
At 4:54 a.m. that day, police received a 911 call, and not just from anyone. Law enforcement sources said an off-duty Chicago police officer who lives on the block was awakened by at least five gunshots.
That officer told a 911 dispatcher the shots came from the alley. The officer even provided a badge number in hopes of police checking out the scene.
Police said officers responded and closed out the shots fired call at 5:08 a.m.
"Something's definitely missing," the anonymous neighbor said.
In the alley where Jenkins' body was found 10 hours later, many buildings and homes have security cameras that will record any car or person going down the alley. Many neighbors shared their video with CBS News Chicago.
None of those cameras have any record of a police car going through the alley between 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m.
"If a police car had come down the alley at 4:30 in the morning, 5 o'clock in the morning, the camera would have picked it up," the anonymous neighbor said.
The department did not elaborate on what closing out that shots fire call entailed.
A friend found Jenkins' body in the alley near her car after going to check on the mother of five when she didn't show up to church.
"For that much time to go by, it doesn't make sense," the anonymous neighbor said.
What's even more troubling, neighbors reflected on something else from that morning.
While the off-duty officer heard gunshots, others heard a car alarm blaring on and off from the alley for more than 40 minutes after the shooting.
"I thought it was kind of weird that a car alarm was constantly going off. It woke me up out of my sleep," the anonymous neighbor said. "That car alarm, what was that alarm? Was that her trying to get help? Was that her trying to alert someone that I'm over here?"
Police have not said if Jenkins' car keys were next to her body, but her car, purse, and identification were all found at the scene, leaving neighbors to wonder about her last moments.
"If police had come in the area when the 911 call came in, they could have heard that, and maybe that would've made a difference," the anonymous neighbor said. "I feel the family deserves to know. Where were police? Where was the response?"
CBS News Chicago has submitted an open records request for the first 911 call made by the off-duty officer and all police communications from when the call was cleared, but has yet to receive those records.
No one was in custody for Jenkins' death as of Friday night.