A 20-year-old Gary man shot himself to death Saturday morning just after telephoning police to confess that he had killed two people about a week earlier on the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Dajuan T. Sease had been released late Friday by Portage, Ind., police because of insufficient evidence against him, though he had failed a lie-detector test in connection with the slayings. Two hours after his release, he called police and said he murdered Cynthia Gomez, 19, and Estevan Jimenez, 24, at the lakeshore park, about 45 miles from Chicago, on Oct. 12. Sease had reported finding the bodies while jogging Oct. 16.
He did not tell police why he killed the couple. Each of the victims was found shot once in the head, and Gomez was found nude.
Also Saturday, authorities were searching for the drivers responsible for two separate hit-and-run accidents that left one West Side woman dead and injured another woman and a 9-year-old boy.
Illinois State Police were seeking a driver in the crash that killed the West Side woman and injured her companion early Saturday on the Kennedy Expressway.
Alba Catrina, 39, of the 2600 block of South Tripp Avenue was killed when the car in which she was traveling was struck by a red late-1970s Datsun or Toyota, said State Police Sgt. Pete Garcia.
Catrina was the passenger in a car driven by Lupe Bryand, 35, that was heading northbound near North Avenue about 4 a.m. when the red car hit their vehicle’s right rear side. Bryand’s car careered into the median and rolled over, throwing Catrina, Garcia said.
Paramedics took Catrina to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, Garcia said. Bryand was in serious condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.
In another accident, a 9-year-old boy was in fair condition Saturday after being struck by a vehicle on the South Side.
Beandre Willis was crossing near 6659 S. Halsted St. about 6:30 p.m. Friday when the southbound vehicle struck him, said Wentworth Area Lt. Frank Trigg.
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Beandre was taken to the University of Chicago Hospitals, where he was being treated for a broken leg, a hospital spokesman said.
Witnesses said the vehicle that hit Beandre was a gray Dodge Shadow. Trigg said police were seeking the driver.
In an unrelated incident, a 17-year-old male was charged Saturday with first-degree murder in the gang-related shooting of 14-year-old Keith Stewart on Friday night, police said.
Eddie Taylor Jr. of 818 W. 54th St. got into an altercation with Stewart about 9:15 p.m. in the 4600 block of North Magnolia Avenue, said Belmont Area Sgt. John Schillen. Taylor then allegedly shot Stewart, who police think may have been a rival gang member, several times in the chest and one leg before fleeing the scene.