Ryan M. Hoffman, 32, was found stabbed to death on the landing of his apartment building in the 6500 block of South Lowe Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side late on the morning of Wednesday, February 27, 2019. The Chicago Police Department investigated, and Area South detectives were assigned to the case.
Hoffman was found unresponsive about 11:45 a.m. on the landing of the building, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. He was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy found he died of multiple sharp-force injuries, and the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. His death was not reported in the Sun-Times until about a week later, and the report said further details were not available.
Police did not say who found him, how long he had been on the landing, whether he was attacked inside the building or whether he knew his attacker.
No description of a suspect or motive was released, no arrest was announced, and no reward tied to his case could be found. No follow-up story about the investigation appears to have been published.
An obituary from the Thompson funeral home describes a Ryan Michael Hoffman who was born on September 29, 1986, in Evanston to Elder Michael Hoffman and Gloria Hoffman, the first of four children, which matches his middle initial and his age. A Chicago Catholic parish bulletin that regularly offers prayers for the city's homicide victims listed him among those killed in Chicago the previous week. Searches for his name are otherwise dominated by a Chicago sommelier and other men who share it.
South Lowe Avenue runs through Englewood a block and a half east of Halsted Street, just south of the 63rd Street commercial area. Englewood is a South Side community area of brick two-flats, small apartment buildings and many vacant lots. A stabbing on the landing of an apartment building happens steps from other residents' doors, and someone who lived there or visited that morning may have heard a struggle or seen someone leave.
Chicago recorded about 500 homicides in 2019, down from about 580 the year before. Chicago police reported clearing roughly half of the city's homicides that year, though that figure counts cases closed without charges. Stabbings and beatings drew far less attention than the shootings that dominated the city's headlines, and many of them were reported in a few lines and never mentioned again.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Ryan Hoffman could be found in news archives or public records. More than 7 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived in or visited the building on South Lowe Avenue in late February 2019, or who saw Ryan Hoffman in the hours before he was found, 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).
