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CHICAGO – There are dozens of cases of unsolved murders of black and brown women in Chicago.
The voice of the victim is silenced when they are victimized by someone who has no thought for their lives, or the families left to suffer an unimaginable loss.
The One West Side faith leader relentlessly seeks justice for victims–like Angela Ford–whose daughter still has no answers two decades later.
“We would get together every Sunday and go to my great aunt’s house and have dinner after church. Those are some of her best memories,” said Angela Ford’s daughter, Keyana Brickell.
Brickell shared one of the few fond memories he has of his mother, Angela Ford, others are downright hazy.
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“I remember my brother and I asked him to come to school with us to get our report cards, and he said no, he loves us, and he’ll be right back and it won’t take long,” Brickell said. “That was the last time I saw him.”
Only then, his mother never came back. Instead, he disappeared for several days before being found in an abandoned building less than two miles from his home.
She was sexually assaulted, beaten, strangled and left for dead. That was in 1999.
Angela was in a coma for a year and a half before she died. The DNA evidence did not match her assailant and Keyana’s questions of “why” and “who” remain unanswered.
“I just couldn’t believe that someone would do that to him,” Brickell said.
Angela Ford is one of dozens of murdered women in Chicago whose cases remain unsolved. The similarities are undeniable. Most of the victims were black women who were found in vacant houses, lots or in dumpsters. Some were burned, others were cut to pieces, but they were all strangled.
“In Chicago, in places like Chicago, the police department says ‘don’t tell the serial killer’ because you might scare someone. But we want to scare someone,” said Robin Hood.
West Side Reverend Robin Hood is on a mission to get answers for the victims’ families
Rev. Hood is working tirelessly to find answers from a massive Chicago Police Department.
“Law enforcement every day chooses what they work with. Every day, as you know in Chicago, we have gun violence,” Hood said.
Some of the cases go back nearly three decades and the questions are often the same he says.
“They’re being asked if they’re an alcoholic? Are they a drug addict, are they a prostitute? It’s the most painful and painful thing anyone can feel when their loved one is gone,” Hood said.
Brickell said the longer families wait for justice the more likely they start to believe their loved ones don’t matter.
“There’s almost nothing being done about it because of where these women come from–the neighborhoods. They feel like black women are worthless,” Brickell said.
Chicago police say these cases remain open, but they cannot make a connection to the cases.
“Not being able to solve those crimes and not putting the resources there is really a situation that I would call not getting cooperation from all the resources and people not trusting you when you don’t solve the crimes, Hood said.
Even some sources within the police department say that some of these cases are definitely connected. The Washington DC-based Murder Accountability Project agrees there is a clear connection in some of the cases.
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