Patricia Dunn, a 37-year-old African American woman residing in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, was discovered deceased on September 21, 1993. Her partially clothed body was found on the loading dock of an abandoned property on the city's South Side. She had sustained severe facial injuries, which were concealed with a cloth, and exhibited defensive wounds on her hands.
Notably, her shoes were missing from the scene, leading investigators to suspect a sexual assault; however, the medical examiner found no evidence of rape. Despite efforts to gather leads, the case remained unsolved for over two years.
In the spring of 1995, children exploring an empty house near the site of Dunn's murder stumbled upon the body of another woman, 36-year-old Angela Shatteen, who was also African American. Her body was found nude below the waist, with her battered face covered and a cord wrapped around her neck. Similar to Dunn, her shoes were missing, and other clothing items were present at the scene. The medical examiner determined that Shatteen had been sexually assaulted and was pregnant at the time of her death. Despite obtaining DNA evidence, this case also went cold.
The investigation took a significant turn on Thanksgiving in 1997 when 42-year-old Claudia Robinson was attacked in the same neighborhood. She was forced into an abandoned building, raped, and severely beaten. The assailant took her shoes and left her for dead under a mattress. Remarkably, Robinson survived by pretending to be dead. DNA evidence collected from her matched that found on Shatteen, linking the cases. Robinson described her attacker as a Black male approximately six feet tall, leading to the creation of a composite sketch.
Over the next few years, several more victims were discovered under similar circumstances, including Nicole Townsend, 32; Evandrey Harris, 44; Cheryl Cross, 38; and Sheryl Johnson, 44. All were African American women found in abandoned buildings with their faces covered and shoes missing. DNA evidence connected these murders to the same perpetrator. The FBI joined the investigation as the murder count rose, and the community became increasingly alarmed.
A breakthrough occurred when two women provided tips about a man known as 'Dre,' who was known for violent behavior towards women in abandoned buildings. This led investigators to Andre Crawford, a local resident with a history of drug and sexual assault arrests. They discovered that the pattern of murders coincided with periods when Crawford was not incarcerated. Crawford was apprehended on January 28, 2000, and, after initially refusing, provided a DNA sample that matched the evidence from the crime scenes. He confessed to multiple murders, including some that had not been previously linked to the case, and admitted to engaging in sexual acts with the victims before and after their deaths.
In November 2009, after a lengthy trial, Andre Crawford was convicted of 11 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Despite the severity of his crimes, jurors spared him the death penalty, and he was sentenced to life in prison. Crawford died in March 2017 from liver cancer, just days before his 55th birthday.
