Roberto Fonseca Xavier Jr., 44, was found strangled near railroad tracks in the 1100 block of North Kolmar Avenue in Humboldt Park, on Chicago's West Side, on the morning of Tuesday, July 2, 2019. He lived in the Hermosa neighborhood, a few miles to the north. Area North detectives of the Chicago Police Department investigated.
According to Chicago police, a train conductor spotted a man lying unresponsive near the tracks and called authorities. Officers responded about 9 a.m. and found Xavier dead at the scene. At first, a police spokesperson said, detectives were uncertain how he had died. An autopsy released the next day, Wednesday, found that he died from ligature strangulation, meaning something such as a cord or rope had been used, and the Cook County medical examiner's office ruled his death a homicide.
No one else was reported hurt.
Police did not release any suspect description, vehicle, motive or person of interest, and no later appeal for information or reward offer could be found. The public record does not say when Xavier arrived near the tracks, whether he was killed there or brought there afterward, how long he had been lying there before the conductor saw him, or whether anything was taken from him. It also does not say who last saw him alive.
Little about Xavier's life has been made public. Alvarez Funeral Directors posted an obituary page for Roberto Fonseca Xavier Jr. dated July 2, 2019, the day he was found. A Chicago church bulletin for July 14, 2019 listed him by his full name among the people killed in the city the week before and asked readers to pray for peace, and the Never Forget Chicago memorial site lists him as well. News reports referred to him by the surname Xavier. Searches for his name are dominated by unrelated people in Brazil, Portugal and elsewhere who share parts of it.
The 1100 block of North Kolmar Avenue lies in the western part of Humboldt Park, where a freight rail line cuts through an area that mixes homes, small industrial buildings and rail right-of-way. Train crews pass through regularly, and people who live or work nearby, walk along the tracks or cut across them may have seen Xavier, or someone with him, the night before or early that morning.
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 in the years from 2019 through 2023, though those figures count cases closed without charges. Killings in isolated places, with no witness and no immediate sign of how the victim died, are among the hardest for detectives to solve.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Roberto Fonseca Xavier Jr. 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 saw him in Hermosa or Humboldt Park on July 1 or 2, 2019, who knows who he was with or why he was near the tracks on Kolmar 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).
