Carl Peter King III, 18, was found fatally stabbed in an alley in the 300 block of North Lorel Avenue in Austin, on Chicago's West Side, early on Saturday, October 28, 2023. The Chicago Police Department investigated his death.
About 6:10 a.m., he was discovered in the alleyway with stab wounds to his chest and abdomen, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The Chicago Tribune reported that he was found near Austin College and Career Academy, a public high school, and that the medical examiner's office at first withheld his name until his family could be notified. Police said no one was in custody.
Police released no description of a suspect, no motive and no information about a vehicle or weapon. It has not been made public how long he had been in the alley before he was found, whether he was attacked there or elsewhere, whether anyone heard a fight, or whether he was with anyone that night.
No reward has been publicly announced, and no later update on the investigation could be found.
Very little about his life has been made public. A listing for "Mr. Carl Peter (III) King" appears on the website of J.L. Majestic Funeral Services, where a memorial tree was planted in his name on November 8, 2023, but no full obituary text was published there. As the third Carl Peter King, he carried a family name, and he surely left behind parents, relatives and friends who remember him. At 18, he was barely an adult.
His name is also common enough that searches for "Carl King" are dominated by obituaries of older men in other states, which may help explain why so little about him can be found. No news story described his schooling, his work or his plans.
Austin is one of the largest community areas in Chicago, on the city's western edge next to suburban Oak Park, with blocks of bungalows, two-flats and apartment buildings. An alley near a high school is a place where early commuters, school staff, delivery drivers and dog walkers pass at dawn. Anyone who was in that alley late Friday night or early Saturday may have seen or heard something.
It was one of several killings in Chicago that weekend; the same morning, a woman was stabbed to death in East Garfield Park. 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 Carl Peter King III 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. Anyone who saw him in the hours before he died, knew who he planned to meet that night, or heard talk afterward about a stabbing on Lorel 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).
