On Nov. 30, 2009, 12-year-old Jahmeshia Conner’s — an O’Toole Elementary School 5th-grader — body was discovered in a South Side alley, near her home in the 6500 block of South Marshfield Avenue, weeks after her family had reported her missing. The case
On Nov. 30, 2009, 12-year-old Jahmeshia Conner’s — an O’Toole Elementary School 5th-grader — body was discovered in a South Side alley, near her home in the 6500 block of South Marshfield Avenue, weeks after her family had reported her missing. The case remains unsolved.
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-1st, issued a $10,000 reward for “anyone who helps bring the killer to justice.”
The congressman expressed outrage at the slaying, and made a rallying plea for the community to help solve the preteen’s “mysterious strangulation” murder case.
“Someone out there knows who killed Jahmeshia and they must muster the moral fortitude and courage to come forward with what they know,” Rush said in a written statement at the time. “Ten thousand dollars should be a large enough incentive to loosen lips and open some mouths. We want justice for Jahmeshia so this family and our community can move toward closure. None of us should rest until the person who took her life is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Conner was leaving church heading home on a Chicago Transit Authority bus Nov. 15, and her family never saw her again.
The next day they reported her missing.
The Chicago Police Department’s News Affairs office said the body was found on that November morning behind the 6400 block of South Marshfield Avenue, a block away from her home.
Days later the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the body was Conner’s, and that she had been strangled to death.
Police faced criticism for their handling of the girl’s disappearance, with family members saying the CPD didn’t do enough to get the word out that Conner was missing.
Anyone with information about Conner’s death, please call Area 1 at 312-747-8380.
Copyright 2011 Chicago Defender
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