Nelson Andaluz, 50, was stabbed to death in the 2300 block of North Kedzie Boulevard in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood on the Northwest Side late on Thursday, April 12, 2018. The Sun-Times homicide tracker records the address as 2342 North Kedzie Boulevard. He lived in the nearby Avondale neighborhood. The Chicago Police Department investigated.
About 11:45 p.m., Andaluz and another man were drinking together on the block when someone they knew stabbed them both and then ran off, Chicago police said. Andaluz was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy found that he died of multiple sharp force injuries, and his death was ruled a homicide. The other man, 60, was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where his condition stabilized.
Police said a suspect was later arrested nearby. But the suspect was released from custody after the Cook County State's Attorney's Office denied felony murder and aggravated charges, according to the Sun-Times and NBC Chicago.
No later report of charges, a self-defense finding or a court case could be found. Police did not release the suspect's name, a description or a motive, and no reward has been announced.
Nelson Andaluz was born in Puerto Rico on January 10, 1968, according to an online obituary. The day after he died, his sister, Sandra Saavedra Rivera, started a fundraiser to pay for his funeral. "What a sad day it is my Brother passed away last night," she wrote. "Something that happened suddenly." The Chicago Tribune's list of 2018 homicide victims gives his age as 42, a figure that does not match his obituary or the medical examiner's office.
Kedzie Boulevard is part of Chicago's historic boulevard system, a broad, tree-lined street with a grassy median and greystones and large old homes on either side, running a few blocks south of the square where the Illinois Centennial Monument stands. Late on a spring night, neighbors, people walking home from the Logan Square Blue Line station or diners leaving nearby restaurants may have seen the men together or someone running away.
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 brief arrest of a suspect who was released when prosecutors declined to approve charges, no criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Nelson Andaluz 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. The wounded man and others who knew the group that was drinking on Kedzie Boulevard that night may know more than has been made public, and anyone who saw someone running from the block 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).
