Darlene Toliver, 56, was found dead inside a home in the 5900 block of West Washington Boulevard in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago's West Side in early April 2018. The Chicago Sun-Times homicide tracker records her death on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, at 5956 West Washington Boulevard; a Sun-Times story said she was found on a Tuesday morning. Area North detectives of the Chicago Police Department investigated.
She was found unresponsive about 10 a.m., according to Chicago police and
the Cook County medical examiner's office, and was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:16 a.m. Police said she had suffered cuts, or lacerations, to the left side of her body. She lived on the same block where she was found. An autopsy found that she died of multiple injuries from an assault, and her death was ruled a homicide.
Police released very little beyond that. The Sun-Times reported that police had not released additional information while Area North detectives investigated. No suspect description, motive, person of interest or reward was made public in the coverage found for this account, and the tracker names no suspect. One Sun-Times headline described her as 54, while police and the medical examiner gave her age as 56.
Little about Darlene Toliver's life has been published. No obituary or memorial page that can be tied with certainty to the woman who died on West Washington Boulevard could be found, and other women who share her name appear in records from other states. She surely had family, friends and neighbors on her block who remember her.
Her age and sex stand out. Most homicide victims in Chicago that year were young men killed by gunfire. A 56-year-old woman fatally assaulted inside a home on her own block is a rarer case, and the people closest to her may have noticed visitors, arguments or changes in her routine in the days before she died.
The 5900 block of West Washington Boulevard lies in South Austin, just east of Austin Boulevard, the city's border with suburban Oak Park. Austin is Chicago's largest community area by population, and Washington Boulevard there is lined with apartment buildings, two-flats and houses.
Chicago recorded about 580 homicides in 2018 and about 500 the following year. Most were shootings; deaths from beatings, like this one, made up a much smaller share. Chicago police later reported clearing roughly half of the city's homicides, though those figures count cases closed without charges.
Old cases can still move forward. Brandon Porter-Young, an 18-year-old Whitney Young High School senior with autism, was stabbed to death at a West Side hotel on February 2, 2018. Nearly a year later, in January 2019, Chicago police charged a man with murder after DNA evidence linked him to the killing.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Darlene Toliver could be found in news archives or public records. More than 8 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who saw Darlene Toliver in the days before she was found, who visited the home on West Washington Boulevard, or who heard talk afterward of what happened to her, may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Chicago Police Department's anonymous tip line at (833) 408-0069 or submit a tip online at CPDTIP.com, or contact Cook County Crime Stoppers at (800) 535-STOP (7867).
