Overview
- Chicago police found a woman’s body inside a garbage can in an alley behind the 700 block of West 54th Street near South Union Avenue on Saturday evening and described the remains as highly decomposed.
- Wentworth Area and Area One detectives opened a death investigation and referred the case to the Cook County Medical Examiner for an autopsy to determine cause and manner of death.
- The medical examiner has not released the victim’s identity, and police say no arrests have been announced as investigators work to confirm who she is.
- Neighbors and the family of a missing woman, identified by relatives as Zenobia Weatherspoon, say she may have been gone for about three weeks but that claim has not been confirmed by authorities.
- Forensic experts say advanced decomposition can delay identification and make it harder to establish time and manner of death, a delay that has prompted local activists and officials to press for a swift, transparent inquiry.