Lane Bryant Murders: Remembering Joliet's Rhoda McFarland

JOLIET, IL - Rhoda McFarland touched the lives of countless people during her time on earth. McFarland lived, laughed and loved. The Joliet resident was one of five women who lost their lives inside the Tinley Park Lane Bryant store on the first Saturday in February 2008. This Friday, there will be a prayer vigil to remember the victims. The killer was never caught by the Tinley Park Police Department.

Patch recently spoke to Joliet community activist Steve Broadway, who, along with his wife, Monica, was a dear friend of Rhoda McFarland.

"I saw Rhoda the day before the shooting," he told Joliet Patch this week. "We were talking about church, pastoring. I gave her a hug, and she wished me a happy birthday. I never thought that would be my last time of seeing her."

Steve Broadway's birthday is Feb. 1. The Lane Bryant murders happened on Feb. 2. Nowadays, every year, he gets an uneasy feeling as the anniversary of the murders approaches.

"Her picture was the first one I saw on the TV channel," Broadway remembered. "I was just in such a state of shock. It sent me back into a dark cloud. I'm calling around and asking if it's true."

Steve Broadway wonders whether the Tinley Park Police Department was up to the task of solving such a horrific and senseless murder. A gunman forced six women — four shoppers, the store manager and an employee — to the back of the store and opened fire around 10:44 a.m.

Connie R. Woolfolk, 37, of Flossmoor; Sarah T. Szafranski, 22, of Oak Forest; Carrie Hudek Chiuso, 33, of Frankfort; Rhoda McFarland, 42, of Joliet and Jennifer L. Bishop, 34, of South Bend, Indiana were all killed. Only one woman, the store employee, survived after playing dead and waiting for the gunman to leave. Her name was never released by the police. She and McFarland were the only two victims who worked at the Lane Bryant. McFarland was the store's manager.

Five were killed but one woman survived the Feb. 2, 2008 shootings.

Within days of the Lane Bryant murders, police described the Lane Bryant killer as a medium complexioned black man, about 5-foot-9, weighing 230 to 290 pounds. He wore a waist-length coat, a black knit cap and dark jeans, according to published newspaper reports. Within days of the mass killings, The Herald-News reported that police "were reportedly searching for the shooter in South Haven, Mich." The description of the killer has changed slightly. The current reward poster lists the gunman as being at least 6-foot-tall.

This reward poster remains on the Tinley Park Police website.

"I still feel every stone is not unturned yet," Broadway told Patch this week. "He's not caught yet. In the end, after the smoke clears, I pray that it's the right guy that they are looking for."

ORDAINED MINISTER

The 2008 Joliet newspaper articles chronicled the life of Rhoda McFarland, an ordained minister who was 42 at the time of her slaying. Characterized as "a giving person," she worked at Lane Bryant after her church in Crest Hill closed. She had been a store manager with Lane Bryant about two years, the article stated. Before that, McFarland worked in New Lenox as a supervisor with Nicor.

"Because I know her so well, I think to the end Rhoda might have even tried to help him. Even with her last breath. I believe she would have been forgiving him and trying to help him. That's what gives me peace in all of this," her friend, Sandra McGhee of Joliet, told reporters in one of the Herald-News articles.

McFarland also had a talent for writing. She helped people find their own passions in life, the newspaper reflected. "She was just a giving person in every manner of the word," friend Anthony Franklin of Joliet told The Herald-News the week following her homicide.

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'ONE OF THE GREATEST'

An article published on Feb. 5, 2008, was headlined, "Gun Attack Claimed One of The Greatest." According to her father, Hilton Hamilton, his daughter had been stationed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland at the time of the 1981 attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley. McFarland had graduated from Lockport High School and took over leadership of the Embassy Christian Church in Crest Hill after leaving her job with Nicor. At the church, she became the pastor and began a mentoring program, the Herald-News article noted.

Rhoda McFarland was also a cooking enthusiast. The Herald-News profiled McFarland in a 2000 article that showed McFarland carrying a beef roast to the stove.

Her funeral service was held at the Range Funeral Home on Joliet's Eastern Avenue. She was the oldest of five siblings.

"Whatever we needed to do, we did and we got along great," her brother Maurice Hamilton told the Joliet paper back in 2008. "She was one of the greatest people on earth."

Steve Broadway wrote a poem in Rhoda McFarland's memory.

To this day, the Joliet woman's unsolved murder remains on peoples' minds, Steve Broadway said.

"If she could help anybody, she was in the area," he said. "She was like a magnet. She drew people to her. If you were sad, down and out, she would make you smile and feel good about living. There is not one bad thing you could say about Rhoda. She gave her all. She was full of life, full of love.

"I know she's an angel. Her memory will never be forgotten."

KILLER STILL FREE

Now more than ever, police need to step it up and get this horrible killer off the streets, wherever he's living now, the Joliet community activist said.

"I just hope one day they can resolve this before her dad or mom passes," Broadway said. "Because it's eating them up. It's devastating our whole community. It touched everybody and the worst is still out there, that they haven't caught the guy."

Want To Help?

The Tinley Park Police Department maintains a website seeking tips on the Lane Bryant shootings.

Main two images via Tinley Park Patch, other image via Steve Broadway