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Evanston Police Charge Chicago Man in 1992 Homicide

Evanston police arrested and charged a 43-year-old Chicago man in the 1992 murder of Deeondra Dawson. Dawson was found stabbed to death in her Evanston apartment at age 25.

Twenty-one years after police found Deeondra Dawson, 25, brutally stabbed to death in her Evanston apartment, they resubmitted DNA evidence for analysis and pressed murder charges against a 43-year-old Chicago man.  

Jimmie Dunlap, of the 5300 block of South Cottage Grove in Chicago, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with Dawson’s death.  

Dawson’s Four-Year-Old Son Was Home During Grisly Murder


According to court documents, police found Dawson lying naked in a pool of blood on the dining room floor of her apartment at 634 Sherman Ave. on April 23, 1992. Police found blood in every room of her apartment except for the kitchen, and also discovered a steak knife in the living room, wrapped in the bottom sheet from her bed.  

Autopsy results indicated that Dawson died of multiple stab wounds, according to court documents. In total, she suffered approximately 34 stab wounds, many other injuries and a human bite mark on her cheek, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.  

Police determined that Dawson’s four-year-old son was present when his mother was killed, and saw the murderer, according to court documents. Her son told police that his mother’s murderer came to the apartment the night before she died, around 10 p.m. He told police he heard wrestling in the dining room around 3 a.m., and went to see what was going on, according to court documents. He saw the man hitting his mother, and when he tried to kick the man to protect her, the man put his hand over the boy’s mouth and his mother told him to go back to bed.  

In the morning, the boy found his mother on the floor, dead, according to court documents. His father called in the morning, and when he told her his mother had died, his father went to the apartment and called police.  

When police arrived at the apartment the following morning, they did not find anything missing. The back door was locked and there were no signs of forced entry to the front door, according to court documents. No one had disturbed Dawson’s car or her purse.  

DNA Evidence Helped Lead to Charges After 21 Years
 

Police have followed numerous leads over the years since Dawson died on April 23, 1992, without any luck in identifying an offender or additional witnesses, according to a press release from the Evanston police department. But within the last three years, detectives re-submitted DNA evidence recovered at the murder scene for further DNA analysis by the Illinois State Crime Laboratory, and in 2012, results indicated that Dunlap was a possible suspect.  

Dunlap had recently been released on parole for a narcotics offense, and police were able to locate and interview him with the help of the Illinois Department of Corrections.  

Dunlap told police he knew Dawson, and provided a mouth swab that police were able to compare with DNA evidence recovered at Dawson’s apartment, according to the release. The Illinois State Crime Lab positively linked Dunlap to Dawson, the release said.  

Detectives interviewed Dawson again at the Evanston Police Department this Tuesday, where he “made statements that were inconsistent with the evidence that was recovered from the scene,” according to the release.  

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office approved a charged of first degree murder against Dunlap this Wednesday, and a bond hearing was held Thursday morning. Bond was set at $750,000, according to police, but Dunlap is currently being held under police guard at a local hospital “due to a personal medical condition, the release said.

Dunlap has 11 prior felony convictions, according to court documents. Most recently, he was convicted of possession of a controlled substance in August 2011 and was sentenced to one year in jail. Other prior convictions include possession of contraband in a penal institution, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, vehicular invasion, theft, robbery and residential burglary. 


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