Cheryl Cross was a 38-year-old African-American woman whose killing became one of the cases ultimately attributed to Chicago serial killer Andre Crawford. Her decomposing body was discovered on December 8, 1998, in the attic of an abandoned house at 1220 West 52nd Street in Chicago. Cross had suffered extensive violence: her clothing was disturbed, she had severe injuries to her face and head, a rope remained around her neck, and the broken blade of a knife was still lodged in her back. Investigators also found pieces of a two-by-four near and beneath her body. The medical examiner determined that the stab wound to her back caused her death, with blunt-force trauma to her head contributing significantly. Her forehead and nose had been fractured, and the injuries indicated she had been struck while still alive.
The investigation eventually connected Cross's death to a wider series of killings in Chicago's Englewood area. Authorities were examining the murders of numerous women whose bodies had been left in abandoned buildings, and forensic evidence suggested that several of the crimes were committed by the same man. A Chicago police and FBI task force was formed in 1999 to investigate the pattern. Biological evidence recovered from Cross was analyzed by the Illinois State Police, and DNA from a vaginal swab was found to match Andre Crawford. The forensic scientist who testified at trial said the semen recovered from Cross was consistent with having originated from Crawford.
After Crawford was taken into custody in January 2000 and questioned about the series of murders, he provided investigators with extensive videotaped statements. In his account of Cross's killing, Crawford said he had known her for several years and that they had previously exchanged drugs for sex. He said that during the first week of December 1998, he encountered Cross near West 51st Street and South Loomis Street. The two went to an abandoned brick building in the 1200 block of West 52nd Street, entering through a rear window and making their way into the attic.
According to Crawford's confession, once they were inside the attic he became angry while thinking about a previous encounter in which he claimed Cross had taken $13 from him. He said he suddenly stabbed her in the back with a six-inch steak knife. As Cross turned after being stabbed, the knife's handle broke away while the blade remained embedded in her back. Crawford said Cross resisted when he began strangling her, and the two fell to the floor during the struggle. When she tried to get back up, he grabbed a rope in the building, wrapped it around her neck and tightened it until she lost consciousness. He then struck her violently in the forehead with a steel pipe. The physical evidence documented during the autopsy closely reflected significant portions of this account, including the retained knife blade, the ligature injury around her neck and the major trauma to her skull and face.
Crawford also admitted sexually assaulting Cross after incapacitating her. He removed portions of her clothing and assaulted her vaginally and anally. He then took her shoes, the pipe and the broken knife handle when he left the building. Crawford told investigators that he walked through the neighborhood disposing of evidence, including throwing away Cross's shoes separately. He said he later used drugs and returned to the abandoned house, where Cross remained in the same position. He admitted sexually assaulting her again before leaving the building a second time. Her body remained there until it was discovered on December 8.
Cross's case formed part of a much larger prosecution against Crawford. Investigators linked him through DNA evidence and his confessions to a string of killings committed between 1993 and 1999. Prosecutors eventually charged him with numerous counts involving the murders and sexual assaults of multiple women, including first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault charges specifically arising from Cross's death. Crawford pleaded not guilty and spent nearly a decade in the Cook County Jail while the extensive case moved toward trial.
Crawford's trial culminated on December 10, 2009, when a Cook County jury found him guilty of murdering 11 women. He was convicted of both murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault in connection with Cheryl Cross. Jurors deliberated for approximately ten hours over two days before returning the verdicts. The prosecution also obtained convictions for the murders of Shaquanta Langley, Tommie Dennis, Sonji Brandon, Nicole Townsend, Evandre Harris, Sheryl Johnson, Constance Bailey, Patricia Dunn, Rhonda King and Angela Shatteen, as well as the attempted murder and sexual assault of another victim who survived an attack.
The jury subsequently determined that Crawford was legally eligible for the death penalty but did not unanimously agree to impose it. He therefore received a sentence of life imprisonment, ending the criminal prosecution that had taken more than a decade to resolve after Cross and the other victims were killed. Crawford appealed his convictions, challenging portions of the evidence and trial proceedings, but in December 2013 the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the trial court's judgment. Cheryl Cross's killing thus remained among the murders for which Crawford was convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.
