Father, daughter found dead inside East Chatham apartment
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A father and daughter were found dead inside an apartment in the East Chatham community on Wednesday.
They were shot and the woman's young son was also found inside the home on Drexel Avenue near 82nd Street, but was unharmed.
At a news conference, CPD Deputy Chief Senora Ben said police responded to a wellbeing check at an apartment at the location. They found the 27-year-old woman and the 79-year-old man both dead in the apartment.
Family and friends identified the woman as Javonni Jenkins. Family identified her father as Curtis Hardman.
Police also found a 2-year-old boy unharmed in the apartment. He was taken to a hospital as a precaution.
Late Wednesday, Chicago Police removed bags of evidence from the apartment.
Meanwhile, CBS 2's Charlie De Mar spoke to the woman's coworkers who said when she didn't show up for her job as a medical assistant at Holy Cross Hospital, they got concerned and called police to conduct a wellbeing check.
"That girl had a heart of gold," said friend Nicole Worth. "She wore her heart on her sleeve. She had a smile that would light up a room. You never saw her down. You knew when something bothered her, but she didn't speak much of it, but she'd just brush it away."
Worth said she was the one who called in a wellbeing check on Jenkins.
"After a certain amount of time, you realize nobody has come to check on the baby; you know nobody was talking to the baby," Worth said. "I could see that he had no clothes on - he was just in a diaper. So now something's wrong."
Germaine Owens, a relative, said Javonni's father had raised her.
"Curtis - a loving father, a loving father," Owens said. "Javonni's mother passed when she was little so Curtis raised her, and they had a great bond."
And Jenkins had now been raising her own son.
"[Jenkins] was raising her child, doing good for herself, and for someone to take her life like she's trash, you gotta be some kind of monster," Owens said.
Worth expressed some relief that Jenkins' son was safe. But the horror for him was lost on no one.
"For them to take her away from her son - that's all that baby knows," Owens said. "That's all he knows."
Area Two detectives are investigating and interviewing potential witnesses.
Police said the incident appeared to be targeted. So far, no one is in custody.