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Jin-Sook ^{23 MARCH 1993}

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

^{BRUTAL MURDER OF PASSIONATE HOUSING WORKER ROCKS CITY}

by Richard Gane

CABRINI GREEN: A young social worker was found stabbed to death yesterday morning at 5 a.m. underneath the El line on the corner of West Schiller and North Orleans.

Jin-Sook Au (24) was a case worker for the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) in one of the city’s most notorious housing projects. But the police refuse to speculate if the murder was gang-related.

‘We’re not releasing details at this time, in the interest of investigating all possibilities,’ Detective Larry Amato said. ‘We’d like to encourage anyone who may have any information to come talk to us urgently.’

Her body was discovered two blocks away from the trendy restaurant and comedy club district of Old Town. No witnesses have yet come forward.

CHAstaff and residents of Cabrini Green have reacted with shock. CHA spokesperson Andrea Bishop said, ‘Jin-Sook was a bright young woman whose passion and insight made a real impact. We’re deeply saddened and horrified by her loss.’

Tonya Gardener, a Cabrini resident, said that Ms Au would be sorely missed in the community. ‘She was real decent at explaining. You felt like you knew what was going on, even if she couldn’t do nothing about it. She was good with the kids. Always bringing them little presents. Books and such, even though they asked for sweets. Inspirational things, you know. Martin Luther King’s biography or Aretha Franklin CDs. Strong black role models the kids could look up to, you know?’

Ms Au’s parents were unavailable for comment. The Korean community has been rallying to support the family and will be holding a candlelit memorial at the Bethany Presbyterian Church on Thursday. All are welcome to attend.

The photograph accompanying the news story shows a body covered up by a blanket in the no-man’s-land between a parking lot and a ramshackle house under the El support struts. The area is fenced off, but that hasn’t stopped people using it as an impromptu dumping ground; a bag of rubbish that didn’t make it to the corner for collection is cosied up next to a dead washing machine laid on its side.

An upset young beat cop is waving his hand towards the lens, hoping to obscure the shot or dissuade the photographer.

If the reporter’s camera had panned left by an inch, the camera would have caught a pair of burlesque butterfly wings pinned against the fence by the wind, unrecognizably ripped, half-concealed by a plastic Walgreen’s bag tangled up in the elastic, but still with a sheen of radium paint.

But then the red line El goes rattling overhead and the backdraft whips it away to join the rest of the city’s jetsam.

It does not appear to have been a robbery. Her book bag has been tipped out next to her, but her wallet is untouched, still zipped up and with $63 and change inside. There is also a hair brush with several long black hairs that will be identified as hers, a pack of tissues, cocoa-butter lip balm, CHA case files on the families she was working with, a library book (Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler), and a video tape ‘Live from All Jokes Aside’, a local all-black comedy club. The kind of aspirational items she was known for. The cops do not realize that there is a baseball card missing – of a famous African-American player.