On February 2nd, 2008, Rhoda McFarland managed to slip her restraints and dial
911 from the back room of a Lane Bryant store just outside Chicago. She had been detained,
along with five other woman, and she managed to whisper a few short words to the dispatcher before
the line disconnected. Just moments later,
all but one of the women would be dead. The perpetrator had no clear motive,
and despite a surviving eye witness, quick police response, and nationwide attention,
the killer has evaded police for 14 years. What happened in the Lane Bryant store that day,
and who was responsible for one of the worst unsolved mass shootings in US history?
That Saturday morning, Rhoda McFarland drove to the Brookside Marketplace, an outdoor shopping
mall at 191st and Harlem in the Tinley Park area. Formerly, Rhoda had served as a nurse practitioner
in the United States Air Force and later became an ordained minister. She had survived
a divorce and recently found a new man, Stewart Gibbs, and she was engaged to be married.
Rhoda had been manager of the Lane Bryant clothing store, a plus-size women's clothing outlet,
for two years. She wasn't scheduled to work on February 2nd, but the store was
understaffed and the only employee scheduled to open that day was a 33-year-old nursing
student and part time employee, who would never be named. Advertisements indicated a
large clearance sale would be happening at the store, so it was likely to be a busy day.
The two opened the store at 10 AM. A handful of customers filed in before a man entered the store.
He walked to the register and struck up a conversation with the two women, who believed him
to be a delivery man. As the manager, Rhoda knew a delivery wasn't scheduled for that day, and she
called Lane Bryant stores to determine if there was a mix-up. Within fifteen minutes, the man
pulled a .40-calibre Glock handgun from his pocket and announced that he was robbing the store.
He corralled two shoppers with the two employees. He confiscated the money from the register,
then collected near $200 dollars and jewelry from his four abductees. Then, he escorted the women
to the back of the store. He taped their hands and feet together with duct tape and forced them
to lie face-down. He made sexual advances while the women were detained, groping one of them.
Strangely, he took underwear from a nearby display and put it on the
heads of all four detained women. This was likely an attempt to block their vision,
but sexual deviated cannot be ruled out as the motivation.
Customers continued to enter, and the man would detain them at gunpoint,
directing them to the back of the store with the others. He abducted two more women, one of whom
tried to resist and fight. He hit her in the face, likely with his pistol, before restraining her.
While the man had seemed calm at first, he grew agitated.
So far, only 40 minutes had passed, but his demeanor and behavior were becoming erratic.
It was at this time that Rhoda attempted to secretly dial 911 using her Bluetooth headset.
The following audio was released by police; however, it only contains the voice
of the perpetrator. CALL
Shortly after the line disconnected, the gunman would open fire on his hostages. The mass shooting
was described as execution-style. McFarland was shot in the forehead, and four of the other
women were shot in the back of the head. The only survivor would turn her head at the last second,
and the shot would graze her neck. She played dead until help arrived.
A police officer was in the outdoor shopping mall at a neighboring store, and he responded
to Lane Bryant within a minute. However, the perpetrator had already fled the scene.
Countless officers responded, some from neighboring counties. They searched each store
in the outdoor shopping mall, combing through aisle after aisle. Helicopters joined the scene,
and divers searched a nearby retention pond for the murder weapon. They recovered shell casings
at the scene, and the survivor described a coffee cup that the man had brought into the store.
The surviving witness was never identified to the public for fear of the murderer taking reprisal
on her or her family. She was the 33 year old nursing student and part time employee.
She spoke with police after being released from the hospital the next day. Her description was
developed into a police sketch and released less than two weeks after the crime.
The perpetrator was described as being between 5'9 and 6'2 with a broad build
and husky. His had medium to dark skin complexion and was between 25-35 years old at the time.
He wore a dark-colored jacket and black jeans with embroidery on the back pocket
that appeared like a cursive G, which could have been from the G-Unit clothing brand.
He was well-groomed with manicured fingernails. He wore his hair in
broad cornrows, and a single braid hung on the right side of his head with four green beads.
Initially, more than 50 detectives were working the case in Tinley Park. They reviewed tapes from
security in the area, added extra patrols, and investigated over 200 tips. Security
footage recovered from the nearby Super Target was recovered and Dr. David Hathaway, a NASA scientist
was paid to enhance the footage. As a result, investigators identified two cars of interest:
a dark SUV and a sedan. One pulled in front of the store at 10:39 AM and the other, a minute
later. Both vehicles left at 10:46 AM. Police are uncertain if the drivers were witnesses,
fleeing the scene after the shooting or if one of the vehicles was being driven by the perpetrator.
Frustratingly, I-80 was only a minute or two away from the store and a likely route of egress.
Investigators have not been entirely forthcoming about what evidence was recovered from the scene.
However, it has been confirmed that they captured shoeprints.
They have DNA, but they have not revealed if it is a large enough sample. If not,
they may be waiting for forensic technology to advance.
The women were in the store with the offender for around 40 minutes
and did not indicate they recognized the man, implying he was likely a stranger. However,
detectives explored the lives of the six victims to exclude the possibility
that this crime was personally motivated. • Sarah Szafranski, 22, came from a Catholic
upbringing. She was married, and her and her husband were homebodies.
She had recently graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in finance
and joined CNA Financial Corporation as an accountant. That Saturday morning,
she was shopping for winter work clothes. • Carrie Chiuso, 33, had earned a bachelor
and master's from DePaul and Loyola. She had dedicated herself as a social worker to helping
at-risk youth at the same high-school she attended a little more than a decade earlier. She had been
married for two years to Tony Chiuso. She had stopped at Lane Bryant to shop for clothes for
an upcoming reunion with old college friends. • Jennifer Bishop, 34, was an ICU nurse at
South Bend's Memorial Hospital. She had been working there for over a decade,
and she was a shift supervisor. She had three children, and she was traveling to Tinley Park
that weekend with her husband who was there for a work conference. Her birthday had been a few
short days earlier, and she was likely at Lane Bryant to spend
a gift card she had received as a present. • Connie Woolfolk, 37, was a mother of two boys,
one of whom had spina bifida. His special needs meant that she rarely had time for herself,
but that Saturday, she had plans to meet friends at a pizza place in Tinley Park.
She went for a manicure and pedicure before, and had an appointment with a client.
She worked as a mortgage lender and even had a second job, stocking shelves at the Super
Target in the same outdoor shopping mall as the Lane Bryant store. She was at the store
to purchase an outfit for her night out. Connie was the one victim who fought back
against the gunman. • Rhoda McFarland, 42,
had previously been an associate pastor at the Embassy Christian Center Church,
but she left the organization after a disagreement with the George Aja, the head pastor.
In less than a half year after the murders, police began to investigate this angle
after they uncovered a 20-minute phone call placed by a former Embassy member that had been routed
to the cell tower nearest the Lane Bryant store just an hour before the murders occurred.
Police flew to Texas to interview George Aja, the former proprietor and pastor who had moved to the
area to start a new non-profit. They conducted interviews with former congregation members,
organizational leaders, and Aja himself to learn about
McFarland and the church's internal issues. Aja had taken a second mortgage on the church
property before migrating to Austin to start a second branch of the church. He left McFarland
in charge of the property. However, this started rumors of financial mismanagement
as members believed they were close to paying off the building. Aja refused to
answer specific financial questions, and McFarland eventually chose to leave.
Some have suggested that perhaps McFarland had uncovered financial misdeeds at the church, and
the killing was the result of a failed intimidation or attempted cover-up.
Police believed this was a botched robbery from a man who was addicted
and likely under the influence of drugs. Robbing a retail store in the early hours
indicates a lack of consideration and preparedness; these stores would have
minimal cash reserves on hand, which means he was either ignorant or desperate. Additionally,
the robbery took over 40 minutes, and the gunman began to lose control and become agitated.
According to an unnamed source that spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times, law enforcement believe
the man had planned to continue to abduct and rob customers as they entered the store.
It's likely that he did not intend to shoot the women as he took precautions
to restraint and blindfold them. However, he must have panicked when he caught McFarland
talking to police and felt compelled to eliminate all of the witnesses.
In 2018, police converted the sketch into a 3D model. It was the tenth anniversary of the crime,
and investigators did a media blitz to drive tips with the hopes of finally unlocking the case.
DNA and fingerprints were recovered from the scene. However,
investigators have not found a match in any law enforcement databases.
In 2022, two new detectives were assigned to the case, Jeff Gravers and Roger Davisson.
The Police Chief Matt Walsh hopes that fresh sets of eyes will help solve the case.
Assuming the police thoroughly investigated George Aja
and cleared him of any involvement, two additional theories remain.
One of the leading online theories is that the killer was actually a woman. Some believe that the
witness was mistaken about the killer's gender; they point to features like broad cornrows,
beaded braids, and manicured fingernails. Even the police sketches portray a rounder face
with fuller cheeks. A workable DNA sample
could determine the gender of the killer, but it's uncertain if the sample is usable.
Another proposed theory is that a local convict, Corey Frierson,
was responsible for the murders. In 2010, Frierson and an accomplice robbed
a First Midwest Bank at 4101 183rd St. Armed with weapons, bulletproof vests, and black ski masks,
they stole every last bill from the bank. The FBI searched Frierson's Richton Park
home and found cash from the bank, ski masks, and shoes that matched prints
from the scene. He was featured on America's Most Wanted and locally on Chicago's Most Wanted.
In April of 2010, he was stopped by police officers for a traffic offense in Lexington,
Mississippi. When officers ran his driver's license, which was an Ohio counterfeit, he fled
his vehicle and disappeared into nearby woods. Frierson was on the run for two years before
calling the FBI to turn himself in in 2012. He served his sentence for the robbery, but
more recently, Frierson was arrested and convicted of Class X felony trafficking of a controlled
substance and possession with the intent to distribute more than 900 grams of fentanyl.
Frierson bears a close resemblance to the description of the shooter in the Lane Bryant
case. However, if police had prints and/or DNA, Frierson must have been cleared as a suspect.
With no truly compelling theory behind this case, it's likely to go unsolved until
police uncover new evidence or testimony. Those who lost their lives that day, they had
planned to stop at Lane Bryant for a few short minutes, to prepare for a day in the future
they didn't know they would never see. Instead, they were detained, kidnapped, and murdered by
a perpetrator who is still out there somewhere, a man or woman willing to kill for next to nothing.