Valerie Jackson, 49, was killed in the 6300 block of South Rhodes Avenue in the Woodlawn community on Chicago's South Side on Saturday, March 17, 2018, St. Patrick's Day. The Chicago Police Department investigated, and the Chicago Sun-Times homicide tracker, which lists every homicide in the city, records her cause of death as strangulation, with no suspect named.
Beyond her name, her age, the block and the date, almost nothing about Valerie Jackson has been made public. The tracker links to a short Sun-Times report on her death, but no detailed news story, obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser naming her could be found for this account. She surely had family, friends and neighbors who remember who she was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public.
The record does not say whether she was found inside a home or outdoors, what time of day she died, who found her, whether she knew her attacker or whether anyone else was hurt. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect, and no reward has been announced.
Her age, sex and the cause of death stand out. Most homicide victims in Chicago that year were young men killed by gunfire. A woman of 49 who was strangled is a rarer case, and a woman of her age would likely have had close family, friends, coworkers or neighbors who noticed when something was wrong.
Valerie Jackson is also a common name, and searches for it are dominated by other women who share it, including professionals, retirees and women whose obituaries appear in other states. That makes it harder to find any trace of the woman who died in Woodlawn and may help explain why her story has been so hard to follow.
The 6300 block of South Rhodes Avenue lies in Woodlawn, a South Side community just south of Washington Park and the University of Chicago's Midway Plaisance, a few blocks from the 63rd Street commercial strip. Residents of the block, or people who were out on a holiday Saturday, may remember Valerie Jackson or the police activity that followed her death.
Chicago recorded about 580 homicides in 2018 and about 500 the following year. Most were shootings; deaths from strangulation and other attacks without guns, like this one, made up a much smaller share. Chicago police later reported clearing roughly half of the city's homicides, though those figures count cases closed without charges.
Old cases can still move forward. Brandon Porter-Young, an 18-year-old Whitney Young High School senior with autism, was stabbed to death at a West Side hotel on February 2, 2018. Nearly a year later, in January 2019, Chicago police charged a man with murder after DNA evidence linked him to the killing.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Valerie Jackson could be found in news archives or public records. More than 8 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Valerie Jackson and saw her in the days before March 17, 2018, or who heard talk afterward of what happened on South Rhodes Avenue, may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Chicago Police Department's anonymous tip line at (833) 408-0069 or submit a tip online at CPDTIP.com, or contact Cook County Crime Stoppers at (800) 535-STOP (7867).
