Sierra Ford, 29, was stabbed to death in the 6400 block of South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, in the Parkway Gardens area of Greater Grand Crossing on Chicago's South Side, on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 29, 2020. The Chicago Police Department investigated her death as a domestic homicide.
According to police, a man she knew stabbed her multiple times about 3:30 p.m. on the block. She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
The Cook County medical examiner's office identified her, and an autopsy ruled her death a homicide.
The day after the killing, a police spokesman told the Chicago Sun-Times that detectives believed they knew who stabbed her, but that the man remained at large. Police did not release his name, a description, a vehicle or a motive, and no later report of his arrest or of any charge in her death could be found. No reward tied to her case was found.
Her family called her Ce-Ce. They raised money through a GoFundMe page titled "Homegoing Service for Ce-Ce" to cover her funeral, writing that Sierra had been "swiftly snatched away from her mother." Her obituary, published through the Jos. R. Jones funeral home at 5515 W. Chicago Ave., names her as Sierra Monique (Ford) Raji and notes that she was preceded in death by her uncle, Gerald J. Ford. A social media post by a Chicago law firm that publishes homicide notices gave her age as 26 and placed the killing in Woodlawn; the medical examiner's office and the Sun-Times gave her age as 29.
Her case stands out because police said early on that they believed they knew who killed her. When no charge follows, the gap is often evidence or witnesses, which is why accounts from people who saw the stabbing can still matter.
The 6400 block of South King Drive is home to Parkway Gardens, a large apartment complex on the South Side that the Sun-Times described in its report as a notoriously dangerous block known as "O Block." King Drive is a wide boulevard, and a stabbing there in midafternoon on a summer weekday would likely have been seen or heard by residents, passersby and people waiting at nearby bus stops.
Chicago recorded about 780 homicides in 2020, up from about 500 the year before. Police reported clearing roughly half of the city's homicides in those years, though those figures count cases closed without charges. Domestic killings, in which the victim and attacker know each other, are often the cases detectives expect to close, which makes the lack of any public charge in her death notable.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Sierra Ford could be found in news archives or public records. More than 6 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who saw the stabbing on King Drive that Wednesday afternoon, who knows the man police were seeking, or who knows where he went afterward, 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).
