Elector Peterson, 45, was found dead inside a vehicle parked in a vacant lot in the 1500 block of West 79th Street in Auburn Gresham, on Chicago's South Side, early on Friday, September 25, 2020. She lived in South Chicago, on the city's Southeast Side. The Chicago Police Department investigated her death, and Area Two detectives were assigned to the case.
According to police, officers responded to the lot about 12:52 a.m. and found her with Bubble Wrap and a seat belt wrapped around her head and neck. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Autopsy results released later that day by the Cook County medical examiner's office found that she died of multiple injuries from an assault, and her death was ruled a homicide. Police did not say whose vehicle it was.
No suspect description, motive, person of interest, public appeal or reward connected to her death could be found.
A social media post by a Chicago law firm that publishes homicide notices described her as found strangled in a car with the seat belt wrapped around her neck in the overnight hours. No later report of an arrest or charge could be found.
Almost nothing about Elector Peterson's life has been made public. No obituary, funeral notice, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for her. Her first name is unusual, and people in South Chicago who knew her may know where she was going on the night of September 24.
The circumstances stand out. She was found miles from her home, in a vehicle in a vacant lot, with Bubble Wrap and a seat belt around her head and neck, details that suggest a deliberate attack rather than a chance encounter.
The 1500 block of West 79th Street runs through Auburn Gresham, a South Side community area where 79th Street serves as a major commercial corridor with storefronts, churches and bus service. Vacant lots along the street sit among businesses and homes, and anyone who saw a vehicle parked in the lot late on Thursday, September 24, or in the early hours of Friday, may have seen something important.
Chicago recorded about 780 homicides in 2020, up from about 500 the year before. Police reported clearing roughly half of the city's homicides in those years, though those figures count cases closed without charges.
Old Chicago cases can still move. Rasheedah Beyah, 42, died in August 2020 of injuries from a 2019 beating in Park Manor; in March 2022, prosecutors charged a man with first-degree murder in her death.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Elector Peterson could be found in news archives or public records. More than 6 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who saw her on the evening of September 24, 2020, who knows whose vehicle she was found in, or who noticed activity in the lot on West 79th Street that night, 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).
