Estranged husband charged with murder of mother of five in Chicago's Woodlawn community

A man was arrested and charged this week with shooting and killing his estranged wife in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood this past January.

Eddie Jenkins, 45, of the city's Brainerd community, was charged with one count of first-degree murder. He was arrested in Douglass Park on the city's West Side on Sunday, police said.

He was also charged with two misdemeanor counts of fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer and carrying a concealed firearm in a park facility.

A woman identified by family as Kiara Jenkins, 36, was found unresponsive around 4:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 18, in the 6400 block of South Drexel Avenue. Police said she suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the body and was pronounced dead on the scene.

Kiara Jenkins' family said she was a mother of five children. The family said she would've celebrated her 37th birthday a week after the shooting, and described her as a very religious person who dedicated herself to her church.

In a proffer, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Mike Pekara said Eddie and Kiara Jenkins were married in 2009, and Eddie Jenkins was the father of the five children. They lived in an apartment on Loomis Street until January 2025, when Kiara Jenkins moved into an apartment on Drexel Avenue, prosecutors said.

This was the second time Kiara Jenkins had moved out due to her husband's controlling nature, prosecutors said. She moved back in with him again, but left for good in January 2025, prosecutors said.

Of the five children, the youngest son stayed with Eddie Jenkins, while the youngest daughter stayed with Kiara Jenkins, prosecutors said. The twin daughters of the pair stayed exclusively at Kiara Jenkins' home due to an altercation with their father in January 2025 in which they felt unsafe with him and called police, prosecutors said.

The oldest son was away at college and would stay with either parent when he was home, prosecutors said.

In September 2025, Kiara Jenkins was preparing to leave for a trip to Atlanta with friends when Eddie Jenkins showed up at her home dressed all in black with his hood up and confronted her about the trip, prosecutors said. In November 2025, Kiara Jenkins told her sister she was going to file for divorce and already had preliminary paperwork, prosecutors said.

On Jan. 17, 2026, one day before the murder, Eddie Jenkins told his twin daughters he was going to pick them up and have all the children, with the exception of the oldest son who was away at college, stay at his house, prosecutors said. One of the twins said this was unusual, as Eddie Jenkins' daughters did not usually stay with him and the children usually did not stay with him all together at the same time, prosecutors said.

Meanwhile, Kiara Jenkins went out with friends that evening and was dropped off at her home on Drexel Avenue around 2 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 18, prosecutors said. Kiara Jenkins, Eddie Jenkins, the kids, and many of Kiara Jenkins' friends all went to the same church, and Kiara Jenkins usually got to church at 5 a.m. each Sunday to prepare, prosecutors said.

Just before 4 a.m. that Sunday morning, Eddie Jenkins left his home drove a white Buick Enclave to his estranged wife's home, prosecutors said. He parked his car about a block away and walked to the back of the home, prosecutors said.

From their bedroom, neighbors heard a man and woman quarreling loudly and the man yelling profanities such as "b***h" and "hoe" at the woman, while the woman told the man he had cheated and had to leave, prosecutors said. Neighbors said they then heard multiple gunshots and the woman groaning in pain, prosecutors said.

Eddie Jenkins went home and woke up his children. And they all went to church, prosecutors said. Kiara Jenkins found it odd that she was not there, and that Eddie Jenkins was there earlier than usual with all the kids, prosecutors said. Two of Kiara Jenkins' friends were alarmed enough to go to her home to check on her, and when they knocked on the door and no one answered, they went around and found her lying on the ground in the backyard with gunshot wounds, prosecutors said.

The friends called 911 and also called Eddie Jenkins, who asked for a FaceTime call and took a screenshot of his estranged wife lying on the ground, prosecutors said. Kiara Jenkins was pronounced dead at the scene, having been shot multiple times in the abdomen, once in the left eye, and once in the leg, back, and thigh, prosecutors said.

Eddie Jenkins was identified in videos by multiple witnesses, prosecutors said.

On Jan. 29, Chicago police officers tried to pull over Eddie Jenkins in the Buick, but he sped off, prosecutors said.

On June 29, officers tracked the Buick to Douglass Park on the city's West Side and set up surveillance. They arrested him as he approached the car, prosecutors said.

At the time of the arrest, he had a 9mm gun on his person, but not the same one he had used in the homicide, prosecutors said. Carrying a gun in the park was a violation of the Concealed Carry Act, prosecutors said.

Eddie Jenkins had been arrested for domestic battery for allegedly choking Kiara Jenkins in 2009, prosecutors said. He was arrested for domestic battery again in 2011 on accusations that he struck Kiara Jenkins with an open hand and pushed her up against a wall during a quarrel, though this matter was dismissed, prosecutors said.

Eddie Jenkins was ordered detained until trial on the murder charges.

Police took 10 hours to find Kiara Jenkins' body

CBS News Chicago learned that moments after the shots were fired, 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.

It was 4:54 a.m. when police received a 911 call from someone law enforcement sources said was an off-duty CPD officer who lives on the block and 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.  It was not until Kiara Jenkins' friends went looking for her when she didn't show up to church that her body was found.

"It's just the safety of our neighborhood; her being a mother," an anonymous neighbor said in January. "Maybe she could've had a chance."

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.