Unforgotten51: Lessons From The Storm

MEET THE REPORTING TEAM

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Over two semesters, journalism students at Roosevelt University conducted a working investigative reporting project on the unsolved strangulation murders of at least 51 Chicago women over two decades. More than three-quarters of these women are African American, according to the Murder Accountability Project, a nonprofit research organization based in Alexandria, Virginia. MAP studies homicide and has used algorithms to conclude that the murders are the work of one or more serial killers. Chicago police continue to investigate. The project seeks to humanize the victims whose bodies were discarded, in many cases, in alleys on the West and South Sides like yesterday’s trash. The project includes narrative story telling and multimedia, culminating in this the final published project.

MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT

Murder Accountability Project

The Alexandria, Virginia-based Murder Accountability Project, has determined the murders of 51 women in Chicago from 2001 to 2018, to have been committed by at least one serial killer. The project was founded by Thomas Hargrove

UNFORGOTTEN: FEATURED PODCAST

CLICK on photo to listen to or READ Samantha Latson, one of the student-journalists who covered the story of the Unforgotten.

UNFORGOTTEN - PODCAST

CLICK on photo to listen to Sydney Mishler, one of the student-journalists who covered the story of the Unforgotten.

UNFORGOTTEN - PODCAST

CLICK on photo to listen to Mohammad Samra, one of the student-journalists who covered the story of the Unforgotten.

UNFORGOTTEN: FEATURED PODCAST

CLICK on photo to listen to Amanda Landwehr, one of the student-journalists who covered the story of the Unforgotten.

UNFORGOTTEN PODCAST

CLICK on photo to listen to Olivia Byrne, one of the student-journalists who covered the story of the Unforgotten.

Reporting the Story - WLS Podcast

click below to listen

Chicago Popo Report Podcast

JWes · 51 Murders: Making the Case for a Serial Killer in Chicago

PORTRAITS OF LIFE

Nancie Walker

Gwendolyn Williams

Reo Renee Holyfield

Genevieve "Jenny" Mellas

Jessica Flores

Shantieya Smith

Diamond Turner

Theresa Bunn

Hazel Lewis

Margaret Gomez

Project News

"Unforgotten" wins Roosevelt University's "Presidential Award for Social Justice"

Project News

"Unforgotten" project spotlighted by Global Investigative Journalism Network

John W. Fountain - Columnist

Fountain, a Fulbright Scholar, was winner in 2016, 2014 and 2011 of the Peter Lisagor Award for best news column or commentary at a daily newspaper with a circulation of more than 250,000. A former New York Times national correspondent, he has won numerous journalism awards over a career that has spanned more than three decades. He is author of five books and a former staff writer for the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune, where he was once the newspaper's chief crime reporter.

John W. Fountain

Author-Journalist-Professor

In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, Roosevelt University’s dedication to “the enlightenment of the human spirit” shines brightest in our unique commitment to social justice. Since 1045, Roosevelt University has been nationally recognized for offering a transformative education that empowers qualified students to consider their greater place within a global society.

Our view of social justice is based in a belief that fairness, honesty, integrity and impartiality should resonate throughout every institution within a civil society...

The university's journalism program, its faculty and its students, embrace that mantra and seeks by public affairs journalism projects like this one, to make a difference by contributing to the public discourse.