Friends and Family Remember Woman Slain 12 Years Ago

Bedford Park police have two persons of interest in the murder 12 years ago of Jennifer Boyd, whose body was found in a Public Storage locker.

Boyd, 27, of Alsip, was a property manager at the Bedford Park Public Storage when she was led into a storage locker and stabbed repeatedly on Aug. 3, 2002.

Sunday marked the anniversary of her death.

Led by Boyd’s sister, Rebecca Hernandez, friends and family gathered in Bedford Park and staged a balloon launch in her memory.

“Even though today is a celebration of Jenny’s life, it can’t go without being said that the monsters responsible for (her) death freely walk the streets,” Hernandez told the five dozen mourners who joined her in releasing nine dozen pink balloons into the sky. “Their lives still go on as normal while ours have forever changed.

“After all these years we still hold out hope that individuals are going to be caught and brought to justice.”

CBS 2 Chicago reports that two persons of interest in the murder investigation were doing business at the storage facility. According to Donna Vickroy, reporting for Sun-Times Media, two new detectives took up the case last year and are looking at Boyd’s murder as a fresh investigation.

“We are working several leads,” detective Andy Smuskiewicz said. “It’s definitely a horrible, brutal crime. We’ve been looking at it pretty heavily.”

Boyd was lured from the office to the locker by the killer, who stabbed her, stole her keys and left her for dead. For two hours, she cried for help, banging on the door of the locker. Eventually, someone heard her and called police. But by the time rescuers pried open the locker, she was dead.

A police sketch the killer depicts a light-skinned black man with wire-rim glasses, age 35 to 40. Public Storage still offers a $25,000 reward for information leading to the killer’s capture.

“She was so much fun. I just miss her,” friend Kristin Morris, of Tinley Park, told Sun-Times Media on Sunday. “She had a great sense of humor.”

Morris went to high school and college at Lewis University with Boyd, who had earned a degree in child psychology. She was working at the storage locker while she looked for a job in her field.

Information about the case can be shared with Bedford Park Police at (708) 458-3388, extension. 314 or 313.