Officials Mourn ‘Beloved Neighbor’ Found Dead In South Side Garbage Can, Call For Full Investigation

BACK OF THE YARDS – Local officials are calling for a full investigation into the death of a Back of the Yards woman whose body was found in a garbage can in a local alley Saturday.

At about 6:25 p.m. Saturday, police found the body of a woman inside a garbage can in an alley in the 700 block of West 54th Street, police said. Detectives are investigating her death and an autopsy determination on the cause of her death was still pending, police said.

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office has not identified the woman or a cause of death as of Monday afternoon, but she was identified as Zenobia Weatherspoon by Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th) and State Rep. Lakeshia Collins.

Weatherspoon was a “beautiful individual and a caretaker for her grandmother,” Coleman said.

Also known as Zee, Weatherspoon was born and raised in the Back of the Yards. Her death casts “a dark cloud over the community and her family,” Coleman said Tuesday.

“It’s a huge loss that a young Black woman’s life has been taken,” she said.

State Rep. Lakeshia Collins said in an online statement Weatherspoon’s death is a “profoundly personal” tragedy, as she watched her grow up in their Back of the Yards neighborhood.

“Zenobia was a beloved member of our community who eve babysat my boys,” Collins said in the statement. “We demand a full, thorough investigation, and we pray that the perpetrators of this heinous act are swiftly brought to justice.”

Weatherspoon hadn’t been seen by her mother, who lives with her daughter, since before the Fourth of July, and she was officially reported to police as missing on Friday, according to the Tribune. She was 38, the paper reported.

Weatherspoon’s death is not isolated, but an example of a dangerous pattern of violence against Black women in Chicago and the state, many of whom are reported missing and often later murdered, Coleman said.

Black women and girls account for over a third of the city’s active missing persons cases despite representing 15 percent of Chicago’s population, according to the state’s Missing and Murdered Chicago Women Task Force.

In June, neighbors held the annual We Walk For Her March in Bronzeville to advocate for more resources for missing and murdered women.

“This pattern of violence is happening in Chicago and across the country, and the number of unsolved cases is unacceptable,” Collins said in her statement. “We need systemic intervention.”

Coleman is coordinating support for Weatherspoon’s family, especially for her grandmother, whom Weatherspoon looked after. Local community violence intervention workers canvassed the neighborhood Sunday and faith groups will provide support to neighbors, she said.

“We’re working closely with Area One Detectives and demanding justice is served,” Coleman said. “It’s going to take every person, whether it’s [sharing] security footage or information. Police are out investigating.”

Coleman called on the public to stop sharing a graphic video circulating online that shows Weatherspoon’s body being discovered, saying it is unacceptable people are glorifying and mocking the fact that a Black woman was found deceased.

Collins also asked the public to report and take the video down.

Coleman acknowledged the video has led to online speculation about what led to Weatherspoon’s death, but she declined to provide more information on the case out of respect for her family.

“We cannot live in silence,” Coleman said. “We need to bring justice to her family. She’s from the community and she is from us.”