Murder at Evergreen Terrace--Young Woman Butchered in Laundry Room, Man Charged With Slaying

A young woman was brutally butchered in an Evergreen Terrace laundry room and a Joliet man found hiding in a Washington Street yard was charged with her murder, police said.

Witnesses and video surveillance led the law to charge 35-year-old Drumaine McKinley with the killing. McKinley was hiding in a grassy area on East Washington Street not far from his home when he was captured about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Joliet Police Chief Brian Benton. Benton declined to identify the dead 20-year-old until her next-of-kin were notified.

A blue Chevy towed from the scene belonged to the slain woman, neighbors said. The Chevy was registered to a 20-year-old Joliet woman named Joslyn Woods.

No one could be reached at Woods’ Doris Avenue residence but a source confirmed that police believe she is the dead woman. No identification was found on the woman’s body, the source said.

McKinley is an ex-convict and is still on parole. He did time in prison for narcotics and gun convictions.

Neighbors said they heard a commotion about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday but thought little it, as such noise is not uncommon in the North Broadway complex.

“It’s like the projects—baby’s mamas and daddies” fighting, said one woman who waited in the parking lot Wednesday afternoon since her apartment lay beyond the police perimeter.

Another woman, Stephanie Gaines, said she discovered the body when she and her children passed by the laundry room on their way out in the morning. The walls were covered in blood, said Gaines, who went to get a friend to make sure the woman was dead.

When they were certain, the friend, Toinette Platt, called the police, they said.

Gaines said finding the body was the worst thing to ever happen in her life and she is now afraid to sleep in her apartment.

Benton said the woman was stabbed “numerous times.” A young man from Chicago who spent Tuesday night at the Evergreen building said the dead woman had been mutilated.

“They said he left the knife in her,” said the man, who declined to give his name but complained about the lack of security at Evergreen Terrace.

“It ain’t safe,” he said. “Anybody can get in.”

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