In the early morning hours of September 14, 2014, the quiet of a Gary, Indiana alley was broken by a grim discovery. Inside a parked car on Jefferson Street, police found the bodies of 32-year-old Tanika Ewing and 38-year-old Alex McKenney. A concerned citizen had reported a suspicious vehicle around 3:30 a.m., leading officers to the tragic scene.
Ewing, a Black female, was in the driver's seat, and McKenney was in the passenger seat; both had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
Tanika, known to be a hairdresser who often traveled to her clients' homes, was a member of the City of Praise Church. Her death left a void in the community, with friends and family remembering her as a vibrant presence. The lack of any immediate reports of gunfire in the area puzzled investigators, leaving them with few initial leads to unravel the sequence of events that led to the double homicide.
The Gary Police Department launched an investigation into the deaths of Ewing and McKenney. However, the case proved challenging due to the absence of eyewitnesses and immediate evidence at the scene. As time passed, the search for answers continued, but no arrests were made, and no suspects were publicly identified. The case remains an open and unsolved tragedy, leaving a family and community still waiting for justice for the untimely deaths of Tanika Ewing and Alex McKenney.
