News 
- Created on 17 May 2013
Couple Killed in Chicago Heights Fire
A married couple died early Friday in a house fire in south suburban Chicago Heights. The flames broke out around 1:40 a.m. in the 200 block of East 24th Street, fire officials said. Neighbors said the entire front of the home was on fire when they heard sirens. "I happened to look out and I saw the front porch mainly up in flames," neighbor Courtney Wilson said.
There is no sign of any working smoke detectors, the fire chief said, so the couple may not have known until too late that their home was on fire. Firefighters ran into the burning home where they found a man and woman in a second-floor bedroom. They rushed the two out of the home, but the woman, identified by family members as 47-year-old Lillian Hill Harrison, had already passed away.
The chief said first responders tried to save 43-year-old Lemont Harrison, an amputee, but he passed away. "Their bedroom's upstairs, so they were probably up there asleep, and the fire went so fast," Lillian Hill Harrison's father, Charles Cowan, said. Neighbors said they have seen children at the home before, but the fire chief said the two adults were the only ones inside when the fire broke out. The fire marshal was on the scene trying to find a cause of the blaze. Neighbors said at one point both the car out front and the house were on fire. It's not clear which came first.
Read more at NBCChicago.
(Photo: NBCChicago screenshot)
- Created on 17 May 2013
Man Facing Eviction Finds Lotto Ticket Worth Nearly $5M
Last February, a judge gave Richard Cerezo (pictured) and his family just a few months to move out of their Geneva, Ill., home. They facing foreclosure.
As they packed for the fateful day they would be forced to leave their home, Cerezo and his wife stumbled upon a bunch of old lottery tickets in a glass cookie jar. When he took the tickets to a 7-Eleven to check them, one was worth $4.85 million, according to the Chicago Tribune[1].
Upon finding the tickets, Cerezo’s wife warned him to either check the tickets or she would just throw them away. So he took the tickets to a local 7-Eleven in Aurora. After checking the first nine tickets, Cerezo says he came up empty. But his luck took an exciting turn.
“The following one was $3, so I was excited,” he said. “I get to pay for my Pepsi. And then the last one said file a claim,” which meant it was worth at least $600.
The management consultant went
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- Created on 17 May 2013
Magnificent Mile $100K Jewelry Heist a Hoax
Detectives on Thursday night said a report of a brazen robbery on Michigan Avenue a day earlier was unfounded.
A south suburban woman who said she frequents shops on the Magnificent Mile told police she was robbed of tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry. But Chicago police say they recovered video from the area and confronted the woman, who asked that her name not be publicized, about inconsistencies in her story.
"It appears as though she wasn't carrying jewelry. People make mistakes. She's not crazy but she called us and told us this didn't happen," a Chicago police sergeant told NBC Chicago. "She had a bad day. We reviewed every single piece of video we could find and saw nothing. It didn't sound right."
Read more at NBCChicago.
(Photo: NBCChicago)
- Created on 17 May 2013
Powerball Jackpot: 3rd Highest in US History
(CNN) -- The Powerball jackpot for Saturday's drawing will be at least $550 million, the third largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history, after no one matched the winning numbers in Wednesday night's draw.
Wednesday's jackpot in the multistate lottery was $360 million. The numbers were 2, 11, 26, 34 and 41 with a Powerball of 32.
Saturday's jackpot will be the second largest in the history of the Powerball game, behind a $587.6 million jackpot that was split by winners in Arizona and Missouri in November.
The largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history was $656 million in the Mega Millions game in March 2012. That was split by three tickets sold in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland.
Read more at CNN.
(Photo: Scott Olsen/Getty Images)
- Created on 17 May 2013
DNA Testing to Provide ID on Baby's Body
DNA testing will be done to identify the body of a baby found in the Des Plaines River earlier this week, officials said Thursday.
Authorities expressed confidence a day earlier that the body is that of Bryeon Hunter, a 1-year-old Maywood boy who last month was the subject of an Amber Alert. Positive identification, however, can only be made by the Cook County Medical Examiner.
That office performed an autopsy on Wednesday but a cause of death was still unknown as of Thursday afternoon. Staff provided tissue samples to the Maywood Police Department to conduct the DNA testing.
The Des Plaines River had been an area of focus ever since Hunter vanished on April 16.
Authorities almost immediately believed the boy had been beaten to death. Days after his disappearance, Hunter's mother, Lakeshia Baker, and her boyfriend, Michael Scott, were charged with first-degree murder.
Though a positive ID still needs to be made, Hunter's grandmother, Brenda Lloyd, viewed the recover as a chance to say goodbye.
"My baby can rest. He can rest now," Lloyd said through tears. "I love him and I miss him, wont have a chance to be with him, hold him."
The case against Baker and Scott was continued Wednesday to May 23. Baker's mother defended her daughter, saying she didn't do it.
"I'm praying that they let my daughter go cause my daughter didn't do it," Lloyd said. "He did it. The boyfriend did it. His family knows he did it. My daughter wouldn't kill her baby."
Read more at NBCChicago.
(Photo: Brenda Lloyd leaves the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office by Worsom Robinson/Chicagodefender.com)
