Philadelphia group helps investigate Tinley Park cold-case

TINLEY PARK, Ill. (AP) - Nine years after the fatal shooting of five women in a southwest suburb of Chicago, police are getting help from a Philadelphia-based group that aids law enforcement working to solve cold-case homicides.

Last October, two Tinley Park detectives presented evidence in the Feb. 2, 2008, incident to members of the Vidocq Society, a nonprofit comprised of criminal and forensic investigators.

Village officials said in a statement Monday that the group's members reviewed the case.

"It's a fresh set of eyes on a very daunting and complicated case," said Steve Neubauer, Tinley Park police chief.

He said the society doesn't agree to hear every case that is presented for consideration, and that the department had to request to be placed on the group's docket.

Neubauer said he can't discuss the advice or recommendations the group offered in solving the case.

Police have investigated more than 7,000 tips in the case, and a reward of $100,000 has yet to produce a lead that will bring resolution to the slayings, which occurred at a Lane Bryant clothing store.

One Tinley Park police detective works on the case full time, according to the statement. A second investigator works on it on a part-time basis.

Neubauer said police received 45 tips in the case last year, and that officers tend to see a spike in leads around the anniversary of the killings.

"We firmly believe someone has information about this case, and we need that person to contact us," Neubauer said.