Carl Watkins, 44, of the Woodlawn neighborhood, was stabbed to death in the early hours of Sunday, May 13, 2018, which was Mother's Day, in the 7900 block of South Drexel Avenue in Chatham, on Chicago's South Side. The Chicago Police Department investigated. The Chicago Sun-Times homicide tracker, which lists every homicide in the city, records the address as 7916 S. Drexel Ave.
Officers responded about 3:15 a.m. to the block and found Watkins with a stab wound to his chest, according to Chicago police and the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Public accounts do not say whether he was attacked inside a home or on the street, who called police, whether a weapon was recovered, or whether anyone else was hurt.
Police said a 26-year-old woman was questioned about the incident. She was later released without charges.
Police did not name her or describe what role, if any, she was believed to have played, and the Sun-Times tracker lists no suspect in the case. No description of an attacker, no vehicle, no motive and no reward have been made public, and no follow-up story on the investigation could be found.
Beyond his age, his neighborhood and the way he died, almost nothing about Carl Watkins has entered the public record. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser that can be confirmed as his could be found. His name is also a common one: searches turn up a college student, a historian and obituaries for several older men named Carl Watkins in other states, none of whom is the man killed in Chatham. He surely had family and friends who remember him, and who noticed when he did not come home that holiday weekend.
The 7900 block of South Drexel Avenue lies in Chatham, a long-established South Side neighborhood of bungalows, two-flats and small apartment buildings, a short distance south of 79th Street, one of the area's main commercial streets. Watkins lived in Woodlawn, a short drive to the north. At 3 a.m. the block would have been quiet, which means that raised voices, a car door or someone running away could have stood out to anyone awake nearby.
Chicago recorded about 580 homicides in 2018 and about 500 in 2019. Chicago police reported clearing roughly half of homicides in the years that followed, though those figures count cases closed without charges.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Carl Watkins 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 with Carl Watkins on the night of May 12, 2018, who knows why he was in Chatham that morning, or who heard talk afterward about what happened on South Drexel 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).
