08/01/2008

Associated Press

Police were investigating a possible link between the February killings at a Lane Bryant store in suburban Chicago and a shooting on the city's South Side in April, officials said Friday.

In each incident five people were fatally shot and a motive appeared to be robbery.

"Anytime you have violent crime like this and another happens with some commonalities, you try to see if they're related," Tinley Park Police Cmdr. Rick Bruno said Friday.

At the same time, Bruno said authorities routinely pursue potential links with other crimes and most of the time there aren't connections. In the six-month investigation into the Lane Bryant shootings, authorities have examined possible connections with crimes in Michigan, Nevada and Dolton, Ill. No links were found.

"If you're investigating bank robberies and you have three or four and every time the robber is wearing a Mickey Mouse mask, that's a commonality," Bruno said. "So far, we haven't seen anything that is the Mickey Mouse mask."

Authorities did not have any suspects on Friday in connection with the store shootings, but a team of 11 investigators were in Austin, Texas pursuing a lead on one of the victims.

On Feb. 2, a gunman killed five women at the Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park in what authorities have described as a botched robbery attempt. Those killed also included store manager 42-year-old Rhoda McFarland. She was shot in the forehead and the four other women, including Jennifer L. Bishop, 34, of South Bend, Ind., were shot in the back of the head, Bruno said Friday. A sixth woman was injured.

The Chicago killings occurred in late April during a home break-in on Chicago's South Side. Three men were charged with murder, armed robbery and home invasion. They were Arthur Brown, 25, of Lansing; Torolan Williams, 22, of Chicago and Michael A. King, 28, of Chicago.

Authorities said Thursday that a team of 11 investigators had traveled to Texas to interview approximately 18 friends and acquaintances of McFarland. She was a pastor at the Embassy Christian Center in Crest Hill, Ill., which relocated to Austin several years ago.

McFarland left the church due to financial problems and leadership at the church, the Chicago Tribune first reported Thursday citing interviews with law enforcement officials and former church members.

Bruno said investigators planned to stay in Texas through the weekend and their investigative work would be focused on creating a full victimology of McFarland as authorities have done with the other four victims.

"We'll go wherever this case leads us," he said.

Cmdr. Tom Wetherald of the Illinois State Police told the Tribune that authorities were also investigating a 20-minute phone call placed by a former member of the church about an hour before the killings took place. The call was routed through a cell tower near the Lane Bryant in Tinley Park, authorities said.

Killed in the Lane Bryant shootings were: Bishop; McFarland, of Joliet; Carrie H. Chiuso, 33, of Frankfort; Connie R. Woolfolk, 37, of Flossmoor; and Sarah T. Szafranski, 22, of Oak Forest.

Authorities have declined to name the sixth woman who was injured.

Tinley Park police and the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force have received more than 3,000 tips in the case.