Patricia Moore, 51, was stabbed to death in the 5300 block of West Monroe Street in Austin, on Chicago's West Side, on the morning of Saturday, August 31, 2019. Area North detectives of the Chicago Police Department investigated.
According to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner's office, Moore was attacked about 8:10 a.m. by a woman she knew. She was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
An autopsy found that she died of a stab wound to the chest, and her death was ruled a homicide. No one else was reported hurt.
Police said the woman who stabbed her was not in custody. That detail stands out: police indicated they understood that the attacker was a woman and someone Moore knew, yet no name, description, vehicle or motive was released, and no later arrest, charge, appeal for information or reward offer could be found. Fox 32 Chicago carried the news under the headline "Woman stabs another woman to death in Austin." Whether the two had argued, whether anyone else was present, and whether the woman was ever questioned has not been made public.
Almost nothing about Patricia Moore's own life has entered the public record. No obituary, funeral notice, memorial fundraiser or family statement that clearly refers to the woman killed on West Monroe Street could be found. Patricia Moore is a very common name, and searches turn up lawyers, workforce specialists, artists and obituaries for many other women in Chicago and across the country, which buries any trace of her and may help explain why her story has been so hard to follow. She surely had family, friends and neighbors who remember her, but what they would say about her has never been published.
Austin is one of Chicago's largest community areas, on the city's western edge next to suburban Oak Park. The 5300 block of West Monroe Street is a residential stretch of homes and apartment buildings a short distance from Madison Street and Central Avenue. An attack at 8:10 on a Saturday morning, between two women who knew each other, may have been seen or heard by neighbors, people on their way out for the day, or others who knew both women.
Chicago recorded about 500 homicides in 2019, down from about 580 the year before. Chicago police reported clearing roughly half of the city's homicides in the years from 2019 through 2023, though those figures count cases closed without charges. Killings among people who know each other often leave investigators with a name, but a case can still stall without a witness willing to testify or evidence strong enough for prosecutors.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Patricia Moore could be found in news archives or public records. More than 7 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knows who Patricia Moore had been in conflict with in the summer of 2019, or who was on West Monroe Street that morning and saw the two women together, 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).
