Lane Bryant shooting victims' families mark anniversary

TINLEY PARK -- Mike Hudek still longs for the 12:15 p.m. daily phone call with his sister. The short check-in over lunch hour was a time to recount the day's events with his best friend, get advice and indulge in a mutual love of celebrity gossip.

For the past year, Hudek has grappled with the sudden loss of his older sister, Carrie Chiuso. The former high school counselor was one of five women fatally shot inside a Lane Bryant clothing store during a botched robbery attempt last Feb. 2.

The killings rocked this quiet Chicago suburb. Investigators have spent 30,000 hours combing through 5,600 tips and worked closely with the sole survivor -- whose identity police have kept secret. Yet still, the lone gunman remains at large leaving victims' families with frustration and grief.

"It's been the hardest thing you could imagine," Hudek said. "It's awful, it's like having your heart ripped out and it's constant."

Every morning for the past year, 12 investigators whose sole task is solving the crime, gather in the "War Room" at the Tinley Park Police Department. Plastered to the walls are aerial maps of the shopping complex, enhanced digital photographs of the store and binders upon binders of paper.

Taped in one corner are photographs of the victims: Chiuso of Frankfort, Rhoda McFarland, 42, of Joliet; Connie R. Woolfolk, 37, of Flossmoor; Sarah T. Szafranski, 22, of Oak Forest; and Jennifer L. Bishop, 34, of South Bend, Ind.

"I come in every morning and I start my day by looking at the pictures of the victims. It gives you a renewed sense of cause," said Cmdr. Patrick McCain, a 21-year department veteran overseeing the investigation. "We don't discount anything. Nothing is trivial."

Their investigation has led them from hair salons on Chicago's South Side -- the gunman's hair was braided -- to nearby states for possible leads and even south to Texas to trace a victim's ties to a church. A police sketch of the gunman has been displayed on electronic billboards in the Chicago area and there's a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Authorities say here's what happened during that harrowing hour on a chilly Saturday:

Shortly after 10 a.m., a stocky man walked into the store wearing a black winter coat and black jeans with rhinestones. He acted like he was making a delivery.

He then announced it was a holdup and forced four of the women into a back room. There, they were bound with duct tape and placed face down on the floor.

Police said at some point, two more women walked into the store and were bound along with the others.

Somehow store manager Rhoda McFarland was able to get free and she called 911 from her cell phone. Her final one-word plea to dispatchers was: "Hurry."

The women were shot execution-style. One of the six lived.

Authorities have never identified the survivor, but she continues to cooperate with police.

Officials believe the gunman did not have any ties to the victims. That thought troubles Sandra McGee, the best friend of McFarland.

"He's still out there, that's not fair. His conscious should be seared. He should be disturbed, he shouldn't be able to sleep," she said. "Somebody has to have a conscious out there. They know something, they've heard something."

McFarland was an ordained minister who has been called a hero because when she was freed, she chose to stay in the store and help the other women.

That's a thought that comforts her brother Maurice Hamilton, who now refers her as "his angel." He visits her grave weekly. Last month there was a small observance there on what would have been McFarland's 43rd birthday.

"She could have saved herself, but she tried to save other people and put herself last," he said. "That was her every day lifestyle."

The Szafranskis, whose daughter Sarah was a 2007 graduate of Northern Illinois University, have leaned on their faith for strength.

They declined to be interviewed, but regularly attend services at St. Damian Catholic Church in Oak Forest, said the Rev. Robert Stuglik.

"They're a very close knit family, they are quiet and gentle folks," he said. "They've been very appreciative of the words of support."

Others also have wished to keep their grieving private.

Portia Woolfolk, who ran a mortgage company with her daughter Connie, declined to be interviewed, saying "I live it every day."

The family's voicemail still has Connie's name on it.

And the lone survivor and her family have also declined media interviews out of fear for the woman's safety.

The tragedy has also affected the city of nearly 60,000.

Residents seem to be a little more conscious, said Edward Zabrocki, who has been Tinley Park's mayor for almost three decades.

"We were shocked into reality," he said. "You take it one day at a time and you keep moving. You have to. It's like a scab. Every once and a while, the scab is pulled off."

The plus-size clothing store was in the middle of the community's main shopping center. The inside the store is virtually untouched since the day of the shootings because it's still an active crime scene. The Lane Bryant sign has been removed and the windows are covered with black material.

It is unknown what will happen with the store. Gayle Coolick, a spokeswoman for Charming Shoppes Inc. which owns Lane Bryant, said the company still has a lease on the building but is unsure if it will reopen.

Each day, a local pastor drags a 10-foot wooden cross in front of the site to honor the victims. He says he will no longer do so after Monday.

For Hudek this time of year is bitter sweet.

Just 12 hours after his sister died, his daughter was born. They named her Carrie.

"At one point, you have every range of emotion," said Hudek, who is working with lawmakers to require surveillance cameras and other security measures at stores like Lane Bryant.

"We scream for fairness and equality and how fair is it that five women get killed and yet somebody knows?" he said. "You don't make sense of it. It's such a senseless thing."