Laverne Smith, 62, was stabbed to death during a domestic dispute in the 1600 block of South Homan Avenue in the North Lawndale community on Chicago's West Side early on Saturday, April 7, 2018. He lived on that block; the Sun-Times homicide tracker records the address as 1636 South Homan Avenue. The Chicago Police Department investigated.
According to police, Laverne Smith was involved in a domestic dispute with another 62-year-old man when that man stabbed him. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:55 a.m. Saturday, according to the Chicago Tribune. Public reports found for this account do not say how many times he was stabbed, what the argument was about or whether anyone else was hurt.
A suspect was taken into custody, but the Tribune's headline the next day reported that the suspect had been released without charges.
No explanation for that decision was published in the coverage found for this account, and no later report of charges, a ruling of self-defense or a court case could be found. The tracker names no suspect, and no reward has been announced.
Little about Laverne Smith's life has been made public. Laverne is more often a woman's name, and searches for it are dominated by obituaries and records for many women named Laverne Smith in Chicago and other states. That crowd of namesakes has buried what little trace exists of the 62-year-old man who died in North Lawndale. No obituary or memorial page that can be tied with certainty to him could be found.
The 1600 block of South Homan Avenue lies in North Lawndale, a West Side community of greystones, two-flats and apartment buildings near Douglass Park, a short distance from Mount Sinai Hospital. Because the stabbing grew out of a domestic dispute, the people most likely to know what happened are those who lived in the building or knew the two men.
Chicago recorded about 580 homicides in 2018 and about 500 the following year. Most were shootings; deaths from stabbings, 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.
Apart from the release of a suspect without charges, no criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Laverne Smith 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 was at the home on South Homan Avenue that morning, or who knew Laverne Smith and the man he was arguing with, 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).
