A quiet stretch of South Calumet Avenue turned into a crime scene early Wednesday when an unidentified 41-year-old woman was found unresponsive in Greater Grand Crossing and later died at a Chicago hospital, according to authorities.
Police discovered the woman in the 6800 block of South Calumet Avenue around 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 26 and took her to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. She has not yet been publicly identified.
An autopsy by the Cook County medical examiner later determined that she died of strangulation, and the death has been ruled a homicide. That finding shifted the case from a death investigation to a full-on murder probe run by Chicago police.
How the medical examiner factors into the case
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, which performs autopsies and certifies cause and manner of death in the county, handles cases like this, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. The agency’s public materials note that it investigates deaths involving criminal violence or other suspicious circumstances and that its autopsy findings help guide criminal investigators and prosecutors as cases move forward.
Investigation underway, and community impact
Area 1 detectives with the Chicago Police Department are leading the investigation, but authorities have not released details about what led up to the woman’s death or whether anyone is in custody, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Detectives typically rely on forensic evidence and witness interviews while working to confirm the victim’s identity and piece together a timeline of the events that preceded the killing…