Aug. 6, 2025
DARK LIGHTS: The Vanishing Women of Chicago
Fornearly three decades, dozens of Black women have disappeared from Chicago’s streets—strangled, discarded, and too often forgotten. In this haunting premiere episode, we follow the stories of Nancie Walker, Diamond Turner, and others whose lives were cut short and whose cases remain unsolved. Through the voices of grieving families, determined activists, and a city haunted by secrets, we uncover the patterns the world refuses to see. This is the story of a community’s fight for justice, the silence of the system, and the shadows that still linger in Chicago’s alleys.
CREDITS:
Created, Written, & Produced by John Reedburg
Hosted & Narrated by Samantha Paul
Production Company: John Reedburg Media
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
https://www.youtube.com/@NoTearsForBlacksGirls
facebook.com/notearsforblackgirls
instagram.com/notearsforblackgirls
tiktok.com/@notearsforblackgirls
1
00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:06,000
Chicago is a city of.
Bright lights and deep shadows.
2
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,360
In the heart of the South Side,
the street lights flicker.
3
00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:13,760
But some stories remain in
darkness for nearly. 3 decades.
4
00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:15,680
A pattern has haunted these
streets.
5
00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:18,720
Black women strangled.
Discarded.
6
00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:21,720
Their names barely whispered
outside their neighborhoods.
7
00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:24,520
Nancy Walker.
Was the eldest of 6.
8
00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:28,480
She was an entrepreneur, a
dancer, a woman who built her
9
00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:32,360
own world Beauty salons, condos,
townhomes.
10
00:00:32,759 --> 00:00:35,680
She was careful.
Detail oriented the kind of
11
00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:37,640
person who didn't trust
strangers.
12
00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:42,640
But on a cold day in January
2003, a black van pulled.
13
00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:46,080
Up outside her salon.
Two men waited inside.
14
00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:50,160
Nancy stepped out, opened the
door and vanished into the
15
00:00:50,160 --> 00:00:53,240
city's silence.
Her sister Myrna called and
16
00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:55,040
called.
No answer.
17
00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:59,600
The next day, Nancy's condo was
untouched, her phone still on
18
00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:02,320
the table.
Myrna knew something was wrong.
19
00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:05,960
She went to the police, but the
urgency faded when they heard
20
00:01:05,960 --> 00:01:08,920
the word Englewood.
Stereotypes replaced.
21
00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:11,240
Concern.
Everybody is a criminal.
22
00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:16,640
Everybody totes guns.
The family felt invisible. 63
23
00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:18,640
days later.
Workers found three.
24
00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:20,200
Garbage bags.
Along the Bishop.
25
00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:25,000
Ford Expressway.
In one, a head, in another arms
26
00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:29,360
in the. 3rd legs.
The torso was never found.
27
00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:32,680
Nancy had been beaten, strangled
and dismembered.
28
00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:36,120
The city moved on.
The case went cold.
29
00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:40,680
But Nancy was not alone.
Over 50 Black women Sharon
30
00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:44,480
Denise, Latoya Monique found in
alleys, vacant lots.
31
00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:46,720
Stairwells all.
Strangled.
32
00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:48,840
All black.
All forgotten.
33
00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:51,760
The pattern grew, but the city
didn't see it.
34
00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:54,600
The police.
Said there was no evidence of a
35
00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:55,480
serial.
Killer.
36
00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,200
Just bad luck, bad choices.
Bad neighborhoods.
37
00:01:59,880 --> 00:02:03,640
There was Diamond Turner, just
21, found in a garbage can in an
38
00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:08,120
abandoned building in 2017.
Her mother, Latonya, remembers
39
00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:10,800
the last time she saw.
Her daughter, her laughter.
40
00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:14,720
Her dreams of becoming a nurse.
The police called it a tragedy,
41
00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:17,480
but the case?
Faded from the news within days.
42
00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:21,120
There was.
Rio, Renee Coleman. 32.
43
00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:25,320
Found in a vacant lot in 2008,
her family described her as a
44
00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:27,280
loving mother, a woman who
worked.
45
00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:29,000
Two jobs to support her
children.
46
00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:31,840
Her killer was never found.
Her children grew.
47
00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:33,400
Up with questions and no
answers.
48
00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:38,320
And there was the case of the
unknown Jane Doe, found in 2014,
49
00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:40,880
her body left in a dumpster
behind a shuttered.
50
00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:43,640
Grocery store.
No one came forward to claim
51
00:02:43,640 --> 00:02:45,920
her.
She was buried in a city grave,
52
00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:49,400
her name still unknown.
The families gathered in church
53
00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:52,440
basements, piercing together
what the police would not.
54
00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:54,200
They.
Saw the pattern?
55
00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:57,120
They warned their daughters.
Their sisters.
56
00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:01,480
Their friends don't walk alone,
don't trust the night.
57
00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:06,360
But the stories faded.
One by one in the neighborhoods,
58
00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:10,040
fear grew.
Women walked faster, eyes
59
00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:13,840
scanning every shadow.
The danger was real, but the
60
00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:16,480
warning was quiet.
A whisper, A look.
61
00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:19,120
A story passed from one woman to
another.
62
00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,360
Community activists began to
organize, holding vigils,
63
00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:26,000
marches and meetings.
They demanded answers.
64
00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:28,400
But the.
City's response was slow.
65
00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:33,200
Azia Roberts was just. 13 When
she organized the first We Walk
66
00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:36,520
for her March, she was angry
that black women and girls were
67
00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:40,640
going missing, being harmed,
abducted, even murdered, and
68
00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:42,800
nothing was being said or done
about it.
69
00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:46,560
She went to her grandmother, to
the Kenwood Oakland Community
70
00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:50,040
Organization and told them we
should do a March.
71
00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:53,160
The Marchers.
Walked for the dead for those.
72
00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:57,080
Whose innocent blood still cries
from premature graves for the
73
00:03:57,080 --> 00:03:59,680
missing, the murdered, the
unforgotten.
74
00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:03,360
Their voices rose.
Foreclosure for justice.
75
00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:06,920
For answers for an end to the
slaying of black women and
76
00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:09,120
girls.
Their bodies discarded like
77
00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:11,160
yesterday's trash.
But this?
78
00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:15,280
Story is not new Chicago has a
long history of violence against
79
00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:17,079
black women stretching back to
the.
80
00:04:17,079 --> 00:04:20,160
Days of.
Redlining and segregation in the
81
00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:24,400
1960s and 70s, black communities
were systematically denied.
82
00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:25,760
Resources.
Jobs.
83
00:04:25,840 --> 00:04:28,120
And safety.
The city's power brokers.
84
00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:30,960
Built highways through
neighborhoods, dividing families
85
00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:32,960
and erasing histories.
The police.
86
00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:34,960
Were often seen as occupiers,
not.
87
00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:39,560
Protectors trust was scarce.
And justice, even scarcer in the
88
00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:41,640
1990s as the.
City struggled with.
89
00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:45,320
Poverty and the crack epidemic.
Black women became even more
90
00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:47,360
vulnerable.
Many of the victims were
91
00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:48,480
mothers.
Daughters.
92
00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:50,280
Sisters.
Women who worked.
93
00:04:50,280 --> 00:04:52,280
Hard, who loved deeply, who
deserve.
94
00:04:52,280 --> 00:04:54,080
To be remembered.
But their.
95
00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:56,440
Stories rarely made the news.
The city.
96
00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:01,920
'S heartbeat on indifferent.
In 2018, after years of silence,
97
00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:06,360
the city formed a task force. 51
women, maybe more.
98
00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:08,560
The police said.
They were working on it.
99
00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:11,800
The families waited.
The candles burned lower.
100
00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:14,760
The alleys stayed dark.
Some say.
101
00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:16,600
A serial killer is out there.
Others.
102
00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:19,240
Say the system itself is the.
Killer slow.
103
00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:23,320
Blind, indifferent.
The truth is tangled in alleys
104
00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:27,480
and empty lots, in files,
gathering dust in voices that.
105
00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:30,080
Refuse to be.
Silenced Myrna.
106
00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:32,400
Walker still keeps.
Her sister's memory alive.
107
00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:36,160
A photo on the dresser.
A candle in the window.
108
00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:38,760
She sits.
By the glass some nights,
109
00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:42,520
watching the street lights
flicker, waiting for a sign, a
110
00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:47,520
knock, a voice in the darkness.
This is Chicago's secret.
111
00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:50,280
This is what?
The others don't see until next
112
00:05:50,280 --> 00:05:51,840
time, hopefully.
I'll see you there.
00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:06,000
Chicago is a city of.
Bright lights and deep shadows.
2
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,360
In the heart of the South Side,
the street lights flicker.
3
00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:13,760
But some stories remain in
darkness for nearly. 3 decades.
4
00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:15,680
A pattern has haunted these
streets.
5
00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:18,720
Black women strangled.
Discarded.
6
00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:21,720
Their names barely whispered
outside their neighborhoods.
7
00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:24,520
Nancy Walker.
Was the eldest of 6.
8
00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:28,480
She was an entrepreneur, a
dancer, a woman who built her
9
00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:32,360
own world Beauty salons, condos,
townhomes.
10
00:00:32,759 --> 00:00:35,680
She was careful.
Detail oriented the kind of
11
00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:37,640
person who didn't trust
strangers.
12
00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:42,640
But on a cold day in January
2003, a black van pulled.
13
00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:46,080
Up outside her salon.
Two men waited inside.
14
00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:50,160
Nancy stepped out, opened the
door and vanished into the
15
00:00:50,160 --> 00:00:53,240
city's silence.
Her sister Myrna called and
16
00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:55,040
called.
No answer.
17
00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:59,600
The next day, Nancy's condo was
untouched, her phone still on
18
00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:02,320
the table.
Myrna knew something was wrong.
19
00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:05,960
She went to the police, but the
urgency faded when they heard
20
00:01:05,960 --> 00:01:08,920
the word Englewood.
Stereotypes replaced.
21
00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:11,240
Concern.
Everybody is a criminal.
22
00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:16,640
Everybody totes guns.
The family felt invisible. 63
23
00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:18,640
days later.
Workers found three.
24
00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:20,200
Garbage bags.
Along the Bishop.
25
00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:25,000
Ford Expressway.
In one, a head, in another arms
26
00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:29,360
in the. 3rd legs.
The torso was never found.
27
00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:32,680
Nancy had been beaten, strangled
and dismembered.
28
00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:36,120
The city moved on.
The case went cold.
29
00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:40,680
But Nancy was not alone.
Over 50 Black women Sharon
30
00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:44,480
Denise, Latoya Monique found in
alleys, vacant lots.
31
00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:46,720
Stairwells all.
Strangled.
32
00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:48,840
All black.
All forgotten.
33
00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:51,760
The pattern grew, but the city
didn't see it.
34
00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:54,600
The police.
Said there was no evidence of a
35
00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:55,480
serial.
Killer.
36
00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,200
Just bad luck, bad choices.
Bad neighborhoods.
37
00:01:59,880 --> 00:02:03,640
There was Diamond Turner, just
21, found in a garbage can in an
38
00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:08,120
abandoned building in 2017.
Her mother, Latonya, remembers
39
00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:10,800
the last time she saw.
Her daughter, her laughter.
40
00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:14,720
Her dreams of becoming a nurse.
The police called it a tragedy,
41
00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:17,480
but the case?
Faded from the news within days.
42
00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:21,120
There was.
Rio, Renee Coleman. 32.
43
00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:25,320
Found in a vacant lot in 2008,
her family described her as a
44
00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:27,280
loving mother, a woman who
worked.
45
00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:29,000
Two jobs to support her
children.
46
00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:31,840
Her killer was never found.
Her children grew.
47
00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:33,400
Up with questions and no
answers.
48
00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:38,320
And there was the case of the
unknown Jane Doe, found in 2014,
49
00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:40,880
her body left in a dumpster
behind a shuttered.
50
00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:43,640
Grocery store.
No one came forward to claim
51
00:02:43,640 --> 00:02:45,920
her.
She was buried in a city grave,
52
00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:49,400
her name still unknown.
The families gathered in church
53
00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:52,440
basements, piercing together
what the police would not.
54
00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:54,200
They.
Saw the pattern?
55
00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:57,120
They warned their daughters.
Their sisters.
56
00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:01,480
Their friends don't walk alone,
don't trust the night.
57
00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:06,360
But the stories faded.
One by one in the neighborhoods,
58
00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:10,040
fear grew.
Women walked faster, eyes
59
00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:13,840
scanning every shadow.
The danger was real, but the
60
00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:16,480
warning was quiet.
A whisper, A look.
61
00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:19,120
A story passed from one woman to
another.
62
00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:23,360
Community activists began to
organize, holding vigils,
63
00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:26,000
marches and meetings.
They demanded answers.
64
00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:28,400
But the.
City's response was slow.
65
00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:33,200
Azia Roberts was just. 13 When
she organized the first We Walk
66
00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:36,520
for her March, she was angry
that black women and girls were
67
00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:40,640
going missing, being harmed,
abducted, even murdered, and
68
00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:42,800
nothing was being said or done
about it.
69
00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:46,560
She went to her grandmother, to
the Kenwood Oakland Community
70
00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:50,040
Organization and told them we
should do a March.
71
00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:53,160
The Marchers.
Walked for the dead for those.
72
00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:57,080
Whose innocent blood still cries
from premature graves for the
73
00:03:57,080 --> 00:03:59,680
missing, the murdered, the
unforgotten.
74
00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:03,360
Their voices rose.
Foreclosure for justice.
75
00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:06,920
For answers for an end to the
slaying of black women and
76
00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:09,120
girls.
Their bodies discarded like
77
00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:11,160
yesterday's trash.
But this?
78
00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:15,280
Story is not new Chicago has a
long history of violence against
79
00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:17,079
black women stretching back to
the.
80
00:04:17,079 --> 00:04:20,160
Days of.
Redlining and segregation in the
81
00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:24,400
1960s and 70s, black communities
were systematically denied.
82
00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:25,760
Resources.
Jobs.
83
00:04:25,840 --> 00:04:28,120
And safety.
The city's power brokers.
84
00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:30,960
Built highways through
neighborhoods, dividing families
85
00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:32,960
and erasing histories.
The police.
86
00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:34,960
Were often seen as occupiers,
not.
87
00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:39,560
Protectors trust was scarce.
And justice, even scarcer in the
88
00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:41,640
1990s as the.
City struggled with.
89
00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:45,320
Poverty and the crack epidemic.
Black women became even more
90
00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:47,360
vulnerable.
Many of the victims were
91
00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:48,480
mothers.
Daughters.
92
00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:50,280
Sisters.
Women who worked.
93
00:04:50,280 --> 00:04:52,280
Hard, who loved deeply, who
deserve.
94
00:04:52,280 --> 00:04:54,080
To be remembered.
But their.
95
00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:56,440
Stories rarely made the news.
The city.
96
00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:01,920
'S heartbeat on indifferent.
In 2018, after years of silence,
97
00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:06,360
the city formed a task force. 51
women, maybe more.
98
00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:08,560
The police said.
They were working on it.
99
00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:11,800
The families waited.
The candles burned lower.
100
00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:14,760
The alleys stayed dark.
Some say.
101
00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:16,600
A serial killer is out there.
Others.
102
00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:19,240
Say the system itself is the.
Killer slow.
103
00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:23,320
Blind, indifferent.
The truth is tangled in alleys
104
00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:27,480
and empty lots, in files,
gathering dust in voices that.
105
00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:30,080
Refuse to be.
Silenced Myrna.
106
00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:32,400
Walker still keeps.
Her sister's memory alive.
107
00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:36,160
A photo on the dresser.
A candle in the window.
108
00:05:36,920 --> 00:05:38,760
She sits.
By the glass some nights,
109
00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:42,520
watching the street lights
flicker, waiting for a sign, a
110
00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:47,520
knock, a voice in the darkness.
This is Chicago's secret.
111
00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:50,280
This is what?
The others don't see until next
112
00:05:50,280 --> 00:05:51,840
time, hopefully.
I'll see you there.
