S2E5: Chicago's Unforgotten 51 — The Full Case Breakdown

Between 2001 and 2018, at least 51 women — the overwhelming majority of them Black, ages 18 to 58 — were found strangled or asphyxiated across Chicago's South and West Sides. Many were navigating addiction or survival sex work, circumstances that, according to multiple investigative reports, contributed to years of minimal media coverage and investigative urgency. This is the full case breakdown behind this week's episode of The Last Known Moment.

Case Background

The pattern first drew sustained public attention in 2018, when statistician and former journalist Thomas Hargrove ran the cases through an algorithm built by his nonprofit, the Murder Accountability Project. The algorithm is designed to flag statistical clusters of unsolved homicides — similar victim profiles, similar causes of death, similar dump sites — that have an abnormally low arrest rate. When pointed at Chicago, it didn't just flag a pattern; Hargrove called it a "red alert."

"These 51 women were not murdered by 51 separate men," Hargrove told reporters. "That simply did not happen."

The Chicago Police Department has publicly and repeatedly rejected the serial-killer theory. In an official statement, a department spokesperson said: "There is no evidence linking the cases to each other or to suggest there is a serial killer responsible for these homicides. Detectives are continuing to investigate the cases individually."

Timeline

• ◦2001–2018 — At least 51 women found strangled or asphyxiated across Chicago's South and West Sides, bodies recovered from alleys, abandoned buildings, and vacant lots — several inside garbage cans that were later set on fire.
• ◦June 12, 2002 — Gwendolyn Williams, 44, found raped and strangled behind a Chicago dollar store.
• ◦2003 — Nancie Carolyn Walker, 55, found with remains scattered along a highway.
• ◦2017 — Diamond Turner, 21, found beaten to death inside a trash can in the Grand Crossing neighborhood.
• ◦2018 — Reo Renee Holyfield's decomposed body recovered from a dumpster.
• ◦2018 — Cold case detectives re-enter DNA evidence from Gwendolyn Williams' case into an FBI database; it returns a match to a 56-year-old homeless man in Tampa, Florida.
• ◦2018 — The Murder Accountability Project's algorithm flags the cluster of 51 killings as statistically consistent with one or more serial offenders.
• ◦January 2020 — Arthur Hilliard is charged with the murder of Diamond Turner — the only arrest the pattern has ever produced.
• ◦February 2020 — Roosevelt University journalism professor John W. Fountain and his students launch "Unforgotten," a project profiling ten of the 51 victims by name.
• ◦Present — The case remains open. Chicago Police maintain there is no confirmed link between the killings.

Key Evidence

DNA was collected in only 18 of the 51 cases, and none of those 18 samples cross-matched one another — a detail investigators and independent researchers still cite on opposite sides of the "is this one killer" debate. In Gwendolyn Williams' case, DNA recovered from underneath her fingernails sat untested for 16 years before a 2018 database match named a suspect who was never extradited or charged, after prosecutors cited a 2017 Illinois Appellate Court ruling limiting prosecutions built primarily on DNA evidence. In Diamond Turner's case, DNA evidence is what finally connected Arthur Hilliard to her 2017 murder in January 2020 — to date, the only charge to come out of the entire 51-case pattern.

Victim Backgrounds

Gwendolyn Williams

Born in 1957 in Birmingham, Alabama, Gwendolyn moved to Chicago with her mother in 1965. She married a Vietnam veteran, was later widowed, and was remembered by her sister Sharon Pritchett as "the best big sister a girl could ever ask for" — a woman who loved fashion, dancing, and animals. On June 12, 2002, Gwendolyn was found dead behind a Chicago dollar store, raped and strangled, at age 44. Her case remains unsolved.

Nancie Carolyn Walker

A 55-year-old yoga instructor and former high school cheerleading captain, Nancie's remains were found scattered along a highway in 2003.

Reo Renee Holyfield

Remembered by loved ones for a genuinely beautiful singing voice, a love of the Fourth of July, and an appreciation for a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Reo's decomposed body was recovered from a dumpster in 2018.

Diamond Turner

Twenty-one years old, Diamond was found beaten to death inside a trash can in Chicago's Grand Crossing neighborhood in 2017. Her case produced the pattern's only arrest: Arthur Hilliard was charged with her murder in January 2020. He was already a suspect in a separate 2018 stabbing death and has not been charged in any of the other 50 deaths, though investigators have said, on the record, that they consider him a person of interest beyond Diamond's case alone.

The Unforgotten Project

In February 2020, Roosevelt University journalism professor John W. Fountain — a former New York Times and Washington Post journalist — launched a project called "Unforgotten" with his students. Over three semesters, they profiled ten of the 51 victims by name, pushing back against media coverage that, in Fountain's words, mischaracterized the women as "prostitutes and drug addicts, as if that made them disposable." The project is a primary source for the victim details in this article and in this week's episode.

Where the Case Stands

At least 51 women are dead. A credible statistical model says their deaths are connected. The department responsible for investigating them says it isn't convinced. Only one arrest — Arthur Hilliard, in the death of Diamond Turner — has ever come from it. Chicago's Unforgotten 51 remains open, unresolved, and in nearly all of these deaths, uncharged.

🎧 Hear the full episode breakdown on this week's episode of The Last Known Moment. Listen here

If you have information related to any of these cases, please contact the Chicago Police Department or Crime Stoppers.

Sources

• ◦Global Investigative Journalism Network — "Unforgotten: Student Journalists Capture the Stories of 51 Women Slain in Chicago," April 12, 2021
• ◦Murder Accountability Project (murderdata.org) — published statements and case cluster data
• ◦Chicago Sun-Times — coverage of the "Unforgotten 51" and the We Walk For Her march
• ◦Wikipedia — "Chicago Strangler" (documentation of publicly known reporting)
• ◦ABC7 Chicago / NBC Chicago — reporting on the arrest of Arthur Hilliard, January 2020
• ◦Official statements from the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office

This article is based on publicly available information and is for educational and informational purposes only. NaturalQueen77 TV strives for accuracy but cannot guarantee completeness. All individuals discussed are presumed innocent of any uncharged conduct unless proven otherwise in a court of law.