Nicole Davis was just 1 year old when she was found dead in an apartment in the 1900 block of South Harding Avenue, in North Lawndale on Chicago's West Side, on the evening of Wednesday, July 25, 2018. The Chicago Sun-Times homicide tracker, which lists every homicide in the city, records the address as 1917 S. Harding Ave. The Chicago Police Department investigated.
According to Chicago police, a 40-year-old woman walked into the Ogden District police station about 6 p.m. and reported "an incident" involving the child. Officers went to the apartment complex and found the little girl unresponsive. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The next day, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office ruled that she died of multiple injuries in an assault, and her death was ruled a homicide. She lived in the same block where she was found.
Police said the woman who reported the incident was "an acquaintance" of the girl.
She was taken into custody that Wednesday night, and police first said charges were pending against her. On Thursday evening, she was released without charges while detectives continued their investigation. Police did not name her. The state's Department of Children and Family Services said it was investigating the girl's death for allegations of neglect and abuse. A DCFS spokeswoman said the agency had previously investigated the child's caregiver six times, between 2007 and 2015, in cases involving an older child; none of those cases involved Nicole, and all of the allegations were ruled unfounded.
Nothing else about Nicole's short life has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family statement could be found. Her name is shared by many adults, including a well-known Chicago community activist, and searches for it return almost nothing about the toddler who died on Harding Avenue. Her age alone makes her death stand out: a child of 1 depends entirely on the adults around her, and the people who cared for her would know who was with her in the hours and days before she died.
The 1900 block of South Harding Avenue lies in North Lawndale, a West Side community of greystones, two-flats and apartment buildings. In an apartment complex, neighbors share hallways and walls, and they often hear crying, arguments or unusual noise, or notice who comes and goes.
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.
The deaths of very young children are some of the hardest cases for investigators, because the only witnesses are often the adults in the home. That makes information from relatives, neighbors and family friends especially important.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Nicole Davis 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 Nicole or the adults who cared for her in July 2018, or who heard or saw something at the Harding Avenue building in the days before she died, 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).
