Nichole Dougas, 42, was found beaten to death on the afternoon of Sunday, June 17, 2018, which was Father's Day, in the 2500 block of West 70th Street in the Marquette Park area of Chicago Lawn, on the city's Southwest Side. The Chicago Sun-Times homicide tracker, which lists every homicide in the city, records the address as 2541 W. 70th St. Area Central detectives of the Chicago Police Department conducted the investigation.
According to Chicago police and the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, she was found unresponsive about 12:25 p.m. and was pronounced dead at the scene. She had suffered multiple injuries during an assault, and the medical examiner's office ruled her death a homicide. She lived on the same block where she was found. Police said no further information was available.
The name itself raises a question. The Sun-Times tracker records her surname as "Dougas," while the newspaper's own story on her death spelled it "Douglas."
The tracker's spelling may be a typing error, and her family may know her by a name that differs from both. That difference may also explain why no other trace of her death could be found: no follow-up news story, obituary, memorial page or fundraiser turned up under either spelling.
Because so little was released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether she was found indoors or outside, who found her, what was used in the attack, whether she knew her attacker, or whether investigators ever identified a suspect. Police initially described the case as a death investigation, and the Sun-Times tracker lists no suspect. No reward announcement could be found.
What is known is that she was 42, that she lived on that block, and that she died in the middle of a Sunday on a holiday weekend, when many families in the area would have been at home or outside. She surely had relatives, neighbors and friends who remember her and who noticed what happened that day.
The 2500 block of West 70th Street lies in Chicago Lawn, near Marquette Park, one of the largest parks on the Southwest Side. The surrounding streets are lined with brick bungalows and two-flats, and neighbors there tend to know each other by sight. Anyone who was on the block that Sunday morning or around noon may have seen or heard something that seemed small at the time.
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 Nichole Dougas 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 her as Nichole Dougas or Nichole Douglas, who saw her in the hours before she died, or who heard talk afterward about what happened on West 70th Street, 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).
