No Arrests 18 Years After Mass Shooting Killed Five Women in a Chicago Clothing Store

On the morning of February 2, 2008, a woman whispered the location of a Lane Bryant clothing store to a 911 dispatcher in Tinley Park, a suburb southwest of Chicago, Illinois.

The woman asked them to hurry. A disturbance could be heard in the background, and when the dispatcher asked her to stay on the line, the call abruptly disconnected.

A Tinley Park police officer was already at the Brookside Marketplace strip mall, where Lane Bryant was located. The officer rushed to the store, but it was too late.

Five women were lying dead on the floor, each with a gunshot wound to the head. A sixth woman suffered only a graze to her neck after moving her head as the gunman pulled the trigger.

The first paramedic on the scene, Kevin Collinge, said he had never seen a crime scene as “heinous or as evil.” He recalled,

“I arrived at the Lane Bryant in time to have three officers coming out the front door, guns drawn, looking for somebody.”

Authorities immediately placed the strip mall on lockdown and searched each store, but the suspect was gone.

The sole survivor of the mass shooting made a full recovery and played a crucial role in helping investigators build a timeline and create a sketch of the suspect.

She recalled that a man walked into the clothing store around 10 AM and introduced himself as a deliveryman. After a brief conversation with two customers and two employees, he pulled out a gun and announced a holdup.

The man then herded the four women into a back room, bound them with duct tape, and forced them to lie face down on the floor. Unaware that anything was wrong, two more customers entered the store and were also taken to the back and restrained.

The 911 call came in at 10:44 AM. Shortly afterward, the gunman shot each woman execution-style with a .40-caliber Glock.

Michael O’Connell, Tinley Park’s police chief at the time, described the shooting as a robbery gone wrong. Investigators believe the suspect intended to rob people as they came into the store, but his plan was interrupted when a victim managed to call for help. An initial theory suggested the man was a drug addict who needed money for a fix.

During the ordeal, the gunman also touched one of the women in a sexual manner. A statement from Tinley Park police did not specify which woman was targeted:

“One of the victims was the target of sexual advances by the offender, in that she was fondled.”

The suspect was described as a Black man between 25 and 35 years old. He was approximately 6 feet tall and weighed between 230 and 260 pounds. His hairline was receding, and he wore his hair braided with light green beads at the ends.

Investigators contacted hair salons and barber shops around Tinley Park, hoping someone might remember interacting with a man matching the description, but it led to a dead end.

At the time of the shooting, the perpetrator was wearing a waist-length winter coat, a charcoal-gray knit cap, and black jeans with rhinestones on the back pocket.

There were no cameras inside Lane Bryant, but investigators reviewed surveillance footage from the surrounding area. Ed Farrell, a former US Marshals Service Supervisory Inspector who worked on the case, said footage from the Target at the strip mall suggests the shooter was not alone:

“There was one camera on a Target store that was able to capture some footage of the front of the store, and right around the time of the shootings, two vehicles pulled up: an SUV and a sedan. And it’s believed, one of the theories is, he engaged in shooting, he had accomplices, they came out front and they sped away. You know, because they pulled up simultaneously and left in the same amount of time.”

DNA and fingerprint evidence were recovered from the scene, but no matches were found in any law enforcement database. Despite more than 7,500 leads pursued over the years and repeated public appeals, the shooter has never been identified.

The cold-blooded murders shocked Tinley Park, and thousands of community members came together to remember the victims and support their families. The mayor at the time, Ed Zabrocki, ordered flags to fly at half-staff for five days in their honor.

The survivor’s identity has been kept private for safety reasons, but it is known that she was 33 years old and working part-time at the clothing store while going to school.

Rhoda McFarland

42-year-old Rhoda was the store manager and the one who called 911 during the robbery. She was an Air Force veteran and a youth pastor from Joliet, Illinois.

Jennifer Bishop

Jennifer, a 34-year-old customer from South Bend, Indiana, was visiting Tinley Park with her husband for a roofing convention. She worked part-time as an intensive care nurse and had three children ranging in age from six months to seven years.

Carrie Chiuso

Carrie, a 33-year-old high school counselor from Frankfort, Illinois, had been married for two years and was looking forward to starting a family. She was shopping at Lane Bryant for a gathering with friends.

Connie Woolfolk

37-year-old Connie was at Lane Bryant looking for an outfit for a girls’ night out that evening. She was from Flossmoor, Illinois, and had recently started a mortgage company with her mother. Connie was also a single mother of two boys, one of whom suffered from spina bifida.

According to her brother, Aaron Woolfolk, she appeared to have put up a fight during the robbery, as there was blood under her nails and several scratches on her body:

“She was beat up pretty bad. He must have pistol-whipped and beat them up pretty bad.”

Sarah Szafranski

At just 22 years old, Sarah was the youngest of the victims. She was from Oak Forest, Illinois, and may have been shopping for clothes for a job in the accounting department at CNA Financial in Chicago. She was a graduate of St. Damian School and an avid churchgoer.

In a public statement to their families, the survivor described the victims as “five of the bravest women I have ever met.” She added,

“Please know that during the unfathomable events of that day, their thoughts were focused on you and coming home. My heart aches that they were unable to do so …”

A $100,000 reward remains available for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator. It is not dependent on a conviction. Lane Bryant’s parent company, Charming Shoppers Inc., offered the reward and also established a memorial fund to provide financial assistance to the victims’ families.

The Lane Bryant store where the shooting occurred remained closed until the building was converted into a TJ Maxx in 2013.

If you have any information, you can call the tip hotline at 708–444–5394 or email [email protected].