A co-worker’s concerns about a man who failed to show up at work led to a grisly discovery Thursday afternoon on Chicago’s Southwest Side — six bodies found inside a tidy brick home on a quiet street in the Gage Park neighborhood.
Chicago police officers who arrived at the home at 1 p.m. for a well-being check found no signs of a break-in but spotted a body on the floor just inside the home. A search revealed the scope of the carnage — five other victims, including at least one child, had been slain.
A massive police response shut down three city blocks all afternoon as crime scene technicians and investigators in hazardous material suits undertook a meticulous examination of the home.
All the while, relatives of those who lived in the home in the 5700 block of South California Avenue frantically tried to figure out what happened and who had been killed.
“These were great people, and we don’t know who would want to harm them,” Noemi Martinez, a relative who lives in Texas, said by phone. “Our entire family is in shock and we can’t believe this happened.”
The shocking killings come days after Chicago posted its most violent January in at least 16 years with 51 homicides and 292 people shot.
Martinez said she first learned of the slayings from a reporter, but her husband was able to speak to police to confirm that their family was involved.
“We’re still trying to figure it all out,” she said through tears. “We don’t know what happened.”
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The family planned to immediately drive to Chicago to help out authorities.
“The police said they need us,” Martinez said.
Police released little official information about the victims or what happened in the home, but Martinez said three generations lived in the home — her husband’s aunt and uncle, in their 60s, their adult son in his 40s, a daughter in her 30s and her two sons.
Martinez said her aunt and uncle immigrated from Mexico about 18 years ago and raised two of their three children in the spacious home. Extended family often stayed there as they tried to get established here in Chicago, she said.
“We were close because we were together,” Martinez said. “My husband was just there with them for Christmas. He had a good time and was just chilling with his uncle and cousins. Nothing seemed to be wrong.”
At a news conference in the block, interim Superintendent John Escalante would say only that “there were signs of trauma” on the bodies.
Responding to a reporter’s question, he said there was no indication that a murder-suicide had taken place, but he said investigators had not ruled out anything.
The timing of the killings wasn’t clear either. Escalante said a co-worker called police to tell them that a man living in the home had failed to report to work Wednesday and Thursday.
A neighbor said she knocked on the family’s door Wednesday to ask someone to move a van on the street but got no answer.
A classmate of the one of the children who lived in the home said he last saw his friend Monday.
“He left after an early dismissal,” said Aaron Villazana, 13. “He was kind of sad-looking and I asked him why was he sad and he said he was just tired … I was wondering when he was coming back.”
The Chicago Lawn police district has added patrols in the area, but Escalante said he does not believe the community faces a threat. The deaths were “contained within the residence,” he said.
Historically, the Gage Park neighborhood isn’t among the city’s most dangerous areas, but it has some pockets plagued by gang violence.
Still, neighbors said, the California block where the slayings occurred was tucked away from the nearby violence.
“Never had any problems,” said Lisa Adams, 31, who moved to the block 21/2 years ago. “It’s quiet over here. No problems. No shootings. None of that.”
The block is lined with bungalows, most of them red brick. Gage Park High School is a few blocks away.
As the investigation continued through Thursday afternoon, neighbors wept on porches, trying to understand the scope of the loss even as they pieced together would-be clues from the week, such as why curtains typically left open at the home were closed. Others recalled that the family dog had been unusually quiet.
They even wondered whether they had heard suspicious noises.
“I just remember being in my house. … I heard a noise and I was like, ‘What was that?’ ” Markita Williams said. “I just brushed it off. … I did hear a noise, a very loud noise and then that was it. I couldn’t distinguish what kind of noise. … I thought it came from inside my house. … I yelled out, ‘What was that?’ but nobody said anything.”
Williams recalled how everyone in the block called the older man in the home “Grandpa” and how he often mowed her lawn in warmer weather and lent her tools.
Martinez said her husband’s aunt and uncle were devoted to their children and grandkids and that all the adults in the home were focused on the children.
“(His aunt) was always a stay-at-home wife and mother who loved taking care of her grandkids,” she said.
The two boys living in the home were well-known around the block.
Jesus Andrade, a friend, said one of the boys who lived in the home had recently taken his eighth-grade picture at Rachel Carson Elementary School and competed on a youth soccer league.
Orlando Almanza, a neighbor, said he recalled seeing the two boys regularly playing in the block. Both attended Carson with his son, he said.
“Those kids played soccer in the alley a lot,” Almanza said. “My son played with them a couple times.”
While police suggested neighbors shouldn’t be alarmed by the killings, Almanza, who has lived there for 20 years, worried about the neighborhood’s safety.
The father had already limited his son to playing mostly in their own backyard.
On Thursday, red crime-scene tape was tied to the fence.
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Tribune reporters Jeremy Gorner, Annie Sweeney, Brianna Gurciullo and Liam Ford contributed.