Chicago, The Dixmoor Five, and a 1991 Homicide

As the city of Chicago continues to grapple with its biggest homicide spike in decades, a notorious one committed there decades ago has finally been resolved.

Illinois police initially charged five innocent teenage boys for the brutal abduction, rape and murder of 14-year-old Cateresa Matthews in November of 1991.

The girl was snatched in a Dixmoor neighborhood while she was waiting to take a bus home from her grandmother’s house. Her body wasn’t found until weeks later -- she had died from a single gunshot wound in the mouth.

All of the ‘Dixmoor Five’ black youths framed for Matthews’ shocking death served a minimum of ten years in prison before DNA tests exonerated them in 2011, implicating, instead, violent career-felon and registered sex-offender, Willie Randolph.

Now 58 and serving time on yet another drug-related offense, Randolph was a parolee in his early thirties 25 years ago when he is believed to have forcibly kidnapped Cateresa Matthews and driven her to a secluded place off Interstate-57.

Here, according to boasts Randolph has allegedly made to fellow inmates, he sexually assaulted the teen then shot her to death as she begged him not to kill her.

Cateresa’s corpse, together with a casing from the 25-caliber bullet that claimed her life, was spotted in a overgrown area near the highway on December 8, 1991; the gruesome discovery triggering a heavy-handed police inquiry that many have since compared to the infamous ‘Central Park Jogger’ arrests.

Illinois State Police assisted the Dixmoor Police Department with their 1990s investigation of the controversial case. Both agencies now stand accused of suppressing evidence and coercing false confessions from at least two of the five juvenile suspects which Chicago prosecutors later used to convict the entire group.

With help from the Innocence Project, the wrongful convictions of Robert Taylor, James Harden, Jonathan Barr, Robert Veal and Shainne Sharp were thrown out in 2011, resulting in 2014’s record-breaking settlement of $40-million by the State of Illinois for their unlawful imprisonments.

That same year the Cook County Sheriff’s Department launched its own probe of the Matthews kidnapping, rape and murder, but, despite DNA evidence already proving beyond a doubt that lifelong criminal Willie Randolph was the actual perpetrator, his arrest was still not forthcoming.

In fact, it wouldn’t be till September 1, 2016, a full two and a half decades after Cateresa Matthews was viciously attacked and slain by him, that Chicago authorities finally did charge Randolph for the crime. They also belatedly issued a public apology to each of the Dixmoor Five for victimizing them “in a way that can never possibly be repaired.”

Eponymous Rox

Foreign Med Student Ambrose Monye Missing in Chicago

PHOTO: Relatives of 28yo missing med student Ambrose Monye, who vanished in Chicago a month before graduating, is "perplexed" and "distraught" over his disappearance.

Monye has been studying internal medicine in Guadalajara Mexico, but was completing clinical rotations this spring at Jackson Park Hospital, alongside one of his siblings.

The "shy and quiet" young doctor-to-be hasn't been seen or heard from since on or about April 21st, and both his cell phone and bank accounts have gone inactive.

Ambrose Monye allegedly last interacted with his brother and may have been sighted by a colleague the following afternoon in the area of the Chicago hospital where he'd been interning.

A missing persons report for him was filed a few days after he failed to show up there again as scheduled and simultaneously lost contact with loved ones.

Though the athletic and "soft spoken" 28-year-old was known to frequent the nearby university library and cafes in the Hyde Park neighborhood, he didn't socialize much because he was too bashful "to even talk to strangers."

Monye instead spends most of his free time "just studying" or visiting with his relatives.

According to them, he isn't depressed, has no health issues requiring medication, and "has never gone missing before."

Foreign med student Ambrose Monye is 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds, with brown eyes, black hair and a medium complexion.

Anyone with knowledge of his whereabouts should alert Area Central detectives in Chicago's South Side at (312) 747-8380.

EPONYMOUS ROX

MISSING IN ILLINOIS: Emmanuel Dominguez

BREAKING NEWS 11/21: Missing Chicago bartender Emmanuel Dominguez ID'd as beaten, stabbed and burnt body found in Gary Indiana. Full news coverage HERE. Original story below:

MISSING PERSON ALERT: Emmanuel 'Manny' Dominguez, 30, has been missing in Illinois since leaving a Halloween party last month with his ex-girlfriend and associates.

His car was found abandoned a few days later, but apparently there were no clues inside or around the vehicle to aid the young man's worried family members and investigators.

Now, as Dominguez's uncharacteristic absence nears the one month mark, the worst is being feared, and his loved ones are desperately trying to get the word out about "Manny's" odd disappearance.

Emmanuel Dominguez is employed as a bartender at the Dana Hotel on Chicago’s Near North Side. 

He is described as a 5-foot-8 light skinned male, approximately 175 pounds, with dark hair and brown eyes.

Investigators say the 30-year-old attended a Halloween party at a warehouse near Damen and Walnut in the West Town neighborhood on October 31st.

That's where he ran into a former girlfriend and then left with her and her associates by car for Bucktown.
 

Along the way, Dominguez reportedly got out of the automobile, the woman claims. His cell phone last pinged at the intersection of Division and Halsted.

Anyone who sees this missing person or knows of his current whereabouts is urged to call 911 or the Summit Police Department at 708-458-1313.

E.R.

Chicago Police Won't Search for Missing Student Jermal Hawkins

University student Jermal Hawkins has been mysteriously missing from his Chicago neighborhood for over a week now, but Chicago police say he's a grown man and refuse to search for him.

Hawkins disappeared without a trace after texting a family member at the public library. From there he was en route to the barber shop to get a haircut, he informed her, but he never made it to his appointment.

The 19-year-old has not been seen nor heard from since.

In June of 2013 college student Austin Hudson-LaPore, 20, similarly vanished in thin air after abruptly leaving his dorm room to view an impending gale.

Chicago police launched an immediate search for the youth, despite knowing beforehand that Hudson-LaPore was an avid storm-chaser and had gone on foot to the rocky shores of Lake Michigan ill prepared for bad weather.

His battered body was recovered from those turbulent waters seven days later.

It's not clear why the Chicago Police Department is making an exception in Jermal Hawkins' case, since this young man's disappearance is far more suspicious and completely out of character.

Jermal Hawkins is described as a 6-foot-2 African American male weighing approximately 245 pounds, with dark hair and brown eyes. It is not known what he was wearing on the day he went missing.

Anyone with information about this missing person is asked to call the Area South Special Victims Section at (312) 747-8274.