The Lane Bryant murders of February 2008 left five women dead and a sixth injured — and their killer has yet to be identified.
Tinley Park Police DepartmentA police sketch of the man who killed five women and injured a sixth at a Lane Bryant store in Illinois in 2008.
On Feb. 2, 2008, a man walked into a Lane Bryant store, shot and killed five people, and left. The culprit has never been found. These “Lane Bryant murders” have become one of the most chilling cold cases in recent memory.
For years, this case has puzzled detectives, stumped investigators, and become a perennial topic of discussion for true crime followers. Apart from core details about the facts of the murders, almost nothing is known about the person who committed them or the reasons for their actions.
Now, as another post on the topic accumulates over 206,000 views on TikTok, internet users are looking back on the case and trying to piece together what happened.
What Happened At The Lane Bryant Store?
At 10:08 a.m. on Feb. 2, 2008, a man entered a Lane Bryant store at Brookside Marketplace in Tinley Park, Illinois. He claimed to be a delivery worker, though the location was not expecting any packages.
Soon after his entry, a store manager, 42-year-old Rhoda McFarland, informed the man that there must have been a mistake. While McFarland made an attempt to remedy the situation, the man announced that a robbery was underway.
From there, the man directed two employees and four customers — McFarland, Connie Woolfolk, Carrie Hudek Chiuso, Sarah Szafranski, and Jennifer Bishop, along with one unnamed employee — into the back room, where he tied them up.
ABC 7 Chicago/YoutubeThe Lane Bryant murder victims. Their identities are as follows: Rhoda McFarland, 42; Connie R. Woolfolk, 37; Carrie Hudek Chiuso, 33; Sarah T. Szafranski, 22; Jennifer L. Bishop, 34.
For more than half an hour, the victims waited, unsure of what was to come. During this time, the perpetrator stole money from the store. At some point, he allegedly made sexual advances toward one of the victims and fondled her, though police say there was “no further sexual contact beyond that.”
By 10:44 a.m., McFarland had managed to free her hands. Using her cellphone, she called 911, though she was only able to whisper the words “Lane Bryant,” “Tinley Park,” and “hurry” before the line went dead. The man’s voice can briefly be heard on an edited recording of the 911 call that was later released to the public. While much of it is unintelligible, in one part of the call, the man seems to say, “I’m losing it.”
The police arrived two minutes later — but by that time, it was already too late. Five of the six women had been murdered, with one survivor seemingly escaping the killer’s wrath by letting a bullet graze her and then playing dead. The perpetrator had somehow escaped, and his identity remains a mystery to this day.
What Was The Killer’s Motive?
One of the most popular theories about the Lane Bryant murders is that the crime was simply a robbery by an inexperienced criminal that went awry. This would explain the mix of orchestrated planning and unpredictability. For example, the killer had the foresight to come up with an excuse and bring the materials to rob the store but selected a low-cash target, did not disguise himself, and did not wear gloves.
However, others have countered that the other details of this story — specifically, the fondling, the killing, and the fact that he spent around 45 minutes in the store — indicate that this could not simply be explained as a robbery gone wrong. Instead, these theorists claim that the robbery was simply a cover for the enactment of a power fantasy or a thrill killing.
Tinley Park Police DepartmentThe $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the Lane Bryant murder case still stands.
What makes all of this even more complicated is that, despite police pulling several fingerprints and obtaining a potential DNA sample of the perpetrator, they have yet to find a match. This means that either the criminal did not reoffend or that they were never caught committing other crimes. It could also mean that the killer died soon after the incident.
Given that the attack had a single survivor, police have been able to provide a description of what the man looked like. According to the witness, the attacker was a Black male with a husky build who appeared to be between the ages of 25 and 35. He was around six feet tall and had a medium-to-dark skin tone. While there are additional details about his hair and the outfit he wore at the scene of the crime, there are no images from security camera footage.
Since the murders, police have released several sketches of the killer. And in 2018, they created a 3D composite in order to help citizens identify the suspect. By 2022, investigators had received over 7,500 leads, but the case has yet to be solved.
The Tinley Park Police Department is still accepting tips that may lead to the apprehension of the perpetrator. Additional information can be found on their website.
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