The body of a 21-year-old Chicago woman who was missing for months has been found tied up and wrapped in sheets in a shopping cart.
Rosa Chacon was last seen by her family outside her home on 18 January. Her body was found in an alley in Chicago’s Southwest Side area on 15 March.
A vigil was organised by Chacon’s family and community on Saturday to honour her. It would have been the missing woman’s 22nd birthday.
“I miss my baby,” Chacon’s father Jose Lucio told ABC7. “Normally when our daughter leaves, we hear from her. She calls the next day, she calls an hour after she leaves, she’s in a house, she’s secure, she’s nice and warm. But we didn’t hear anything.”
Chacon’s mother recalled the 21-year-old’s last words to her.
“I’ll be back mom. I got the Uber ride there and the Uber ride back,” she had said, according to the mother, also named Rosa Chacon.
Footage from the family’s home security camera showed Chacon getting into an Uber. Her family said at the time that she had not taken any ID with her or even her coat.
It remains unclear whether she made it to her destination.
Chacon’s body was found nearly two miles away from where she was last seen at around 10.45am on 15 March and her family identified her through her tattoos.
“I don’t know how they have a heart to do somebody like that,” Ms Chacon, the victim’s mother, had said after the body was discovered.
The Cook County medical examiner will now determine the exact cause of Chacon’s death.
Chacon’s family claims the Chicago police did not do much to help find her and had instead hired private investigators to help with the search.
Chicago police detectives described her case as a “death investigation” as of Saturday.
The police has offered a $15,000 reward for information that could lead to an arrest and conviction in the case.
