Police were trying to determine late Friday if a body found at a Northwest Side funeral home Friday was that of a worker reported missing by her family earlier this week.
Chicago and Harwood Heights police investigators were interviewing friends, family members and co-workers of Mary Stachowicz, 51, a Northwest Side mother who was last seen Wednesday at Sikorski Funeral Home in the 3600 block of West George Street, officials said. The body of a woman was found at the funeral home Friday afternoon and taken to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. But authorities said they could not confirm the identity of the body.
“A body was found. . . . This is a body that was there that wasn’t supposed to be there,” said a spokesman for the medical examiner’s office.
Grand Central Area detectives refused to release any information in the case, except to say through a police spokeswoman that Stachowicz’s disappearance and the body were being considered as separate cases.
Authorities said they hoped to make a positive identification Saturday, when an autopsy was scheduled.
Stachowicz’s husband was unable to find her at the funeral home midday Wednesday and called police, a spokesman said. Her purse, coat and other personal belongings as well as her car were still at the funeral home, officials said.
Stachowicz was helping at the funeral home, which is owned by friends of the family, a neighbor said.
Police considered Stachowicz a missing person because there were no witnesses or physical evidence to suggest otherwise, said police Sgt. Robert Cargie. Family members had been concerned about the possibility of foul play, saying it was unusual for her not to contact them or return home, Cargie said.
Mary Coleman, a neighbor who was at the Stachowicz home Friday afternoon while family members distributed missing-person fliers, described Stachowicz as a warm and caring mother and neighbor.
“She was a home-mother. Her work was her home, her children and her husband,” Coleman said. “She was a fabulous cook. She would always stop by, bringing food she made. . . . My husband would rave about her Polish food.”
Stachowicz and her husband have three sons and a daughter, all in their 20s, Coleman said.
Coleman and other neighbors on Stachowicz’s street lit candles on their front porches. “We want to keep them lit until she comes home,” Coleman said. “We want to stay hopeful.”