Rodney Donovan Taylor, a 28-year-old musician, producer and DJ known as Don Crescendo, was stabbed on the night of Tuesday, September 12, 2023, inside his apartment building in the 3000 block of North Elston Avenue in Avondale, on Chicago's Northwest Side. He died three days later, on Friday, September 15, 2023. The Chicago Police Department investigated, and Area Five detectives were assigned to the case.
About 10:50 p.m. that Tuesday, officers from the 14th District responded to calls of a stabbing and found two men with multiple stab wounds in a second-floor apartment. One of them, Taylor's 55-year-old neighbor, identified by the Cook County medical examiner as James Traven, was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center and pronounced dead. Taylor, stabbed several times, was taken to the same hospital in critical condition. After two days of surgeries and monitoring, he died early Friday. Both deaths were ruled homicides.
From the start, the circumstances were unclear.
Police said they did not know what led to the stabbing, and Block Club Chicago reported that they did not answer questions about whether the two men knew each other, whether one attacked the other, whether there was a third attacker, or in whose apartment the attack took place. No suspect description, person of interest or reward has been made public.
Taylor was born in South Carolina in January 1995 and spent his youth there before moving to Chicago, where he became a staple of the city's LGBTQ+ nightlife. He played at bars and clubs including The Whistler and Smartbar and staged queer parties he called Late Nite and The Hookup Party. He released the albums Rough in 2016 and Raw and Ready in 2017, and the singles "Again" and "Hot Right Now" in 2022.
Two close friends, Alana Harris and Meredith Wohl, started a GoFundMe that raised more than $50,000 toward a $75,000 goal. They wrote that he was known "to his family as a caring oldest son and to everyone as a loving, generous and laughter-inspiring person," and that he "left an indelible impression on everyone he met." Friends held a celebration of his life at Hollywood Beach. A funeral service was held in Columbia, South Carolina, on September 24, 2023.
The building stands on North Elston Avenue in Avondale, a busy diagonal artery on the Northwest Side. Residents, or people passing on Elston late that Tuesday night, may have heard the struggle or seen someone leave.
Chicago recorded about 620 homicides in 2023, fewer than the roughly 780 in 2020 and about 800 in 2021, the deadliest year in a quarter century, but still far more than in most large American cities. Chicago police reported clearing roughly half of homicides in 2019 through 2023, though those figures count cases closed without charges. Many killings from those years remain without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Rodney Donovan Taylor could be found in news archives or public records. More than 3 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible, and it has never been publicly explained what happened in the building that night. Anyone who lived in or visited the building on North Elston Avenue, or who heard Taylor or his neighbor talk about a conflict in the days before, 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).
