About those other women ...

About those other women ...
November 21, 2007

We're in Week Two of an all-out national dragnet for missing Bolingbrook woman Stacy Peterson. And now a fresh national media frenzy has swarmed over a Glendale Heights family, the second Indian family from DuPage County this year where children were doused with gas and burned.

Yet we hardly hear a mention of the cases of two women whose charred bodies were found on the South Side: Theresa Bunn, a 21-year-old black woman, and another woman, believed to be 30-50 years, were discovered in ashes in garbage containers near Washington Park in the Woodlawn community. Bunn was last seen Nov. 12. The unidentified middle-aged woman -- whose remains were too damaged to determine race -- was discovered Nov. 14.

And in between those grisly finds, a 14-year-old black girl, Deanna Glass, from Bronzeville, disappeared.

"It definitely symbolizes something to whomever committed these grotesque acts that [the burned women] were thought of as trash," said Delilah McDonald, a 20-year-old student, while waiting for a Cottage Grove bus with a male escort for her safety.

How is it that we know so much about the Peterson family and their Jerry Springer-like story arc and yet we know virtually nothing about these other missing women, believed to be all black on the South Side? We don't even know who killed Nailah Franklin, the 28-year-old black woman whose body was found in a Calumet City forest preserve in September.
Stacy Peterson had plenty of reasons to rethink her choices and escape to start anew. If some tragedy has befallen her, let's hope authorities can find her quickly.

But what about the burned women and the missing teen? These were not run-of-the-mill murders -- if there is such a category. Not only was Bunn strangled and burned, she also was eight months pregnant. That means her baby boy, to be named Michael, was murdered, too. Police have no clue who the second burned woman is. And there's nothing about Deanna that would suggest she would run away. She's described as an A-student and no-nonsense girl. Deanna's mother, Gail Glass, last saw her daughter while she was in the hospital and now has the onerous task of gathering Deanna's dental records in case police find a body. Police have distributed community alerts to solicit residents' assistance in these cases.
We hate to even bring this up, but could a serial killer be on the loose? Two women burned, a third girl missing on the same side of town. We aren't the first to suggest these incidents might be connected.

"We don't think we have enough to classify this as a serial killer," said Monique Bond, Chicago Police Department spokeswoman.

Many Woodlawn women are resigned to the fact that heinous crimes in their neighborhood don't necessarily generate big headlines. They are used to seeing white women publicly elevated when something happens, and Peterson and her prosaic life are no different.
"I'm afraid for my daughter," said Camille Fairman, 32, who's given her own teen daughter orders to stay in a group and to call home for a ride after dark. "I told her to scream, kick or try to do something like that to put up a fight."

Several years ago a serial killer on the South Side was knocking off prostitutes and leaving them in abandoned buildings. Their deaths didn't make the front page until someone connected the pattern.

We shouldn't put a value on life in certain neighborhoods. If these two women were found burned to death in Lincoln Park, there'd be a task force formed by now. That Woodlawn is just a stone's throw from our celebrated University of Chicago and the planned site for the 2016 Olympics shouldn't matter, but if that's what it takes to generate some outrage, so be it.