5 victims found in Chicago home stabbed, 1 was shot

CHICAGO (AP) - Five of the people whose bodies were found in a house on Chicago's South Side this week were stabbed to death and a sixth victim died of multiple gunshot wounds, authorities said Friday, and none of the victims killed themselves.

Autopsies showed the cause of death of two of the stabbing victims was both sharp and blunt force trauma injuries, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said in a news release, while the two children who died had been stabbed to death.

The release did not provide any further information, including the names and ages of the victims - two women, two men and two children.

Hours after the bodies were found Thursday, Chicago Police said it was a possibility someone in the house killed the five others before taking his or her own life but the medical examiner's office said all of the deaths were homicides. Police found the bodies after a co-worker of one of the victims called to report the man had not been at work for two days.

Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy said earlier Friday that it appeared the victims were members of the same family. There were no signs of forced entry to the residence in the Gage Park neighborhood, the doors were locked, the home didn't appear ransacked and the victims weren't bound, Roy said.

"There is nothing at this point that leads us to believe this was a random act. There are no signs at this point of a burglary gone bad, or that anyone forced their way into the house," interim Chicago Police Superintendent John Escalante said Friday.

Police have added extra patrols in the neighborhood as a precaution, but on Friday morning they reiterated what they said Thursday night: they did not believe there was a wider threat to the community.

Next-door neighbor Mayra Diego said Friday that the family members were quiet and peaceful people.

"That's what we're most sorry about," Diego said. "Because we could have done something or being so close I feel like maybe we would have noticed something."

Six people lived in the home - a couple, their son, their daughter and the daughter's two children - a relative said.

"They were a normal family. Everything was fine," Noemi Martinez, 29, said from Dallas during a phone interview in Spanish. She said her husband was a nephew and cousin of the home's residents.

Martinez said the father worked at a factory in Chicago and the mother was a housewife. They were originally from the Mexican state of Guanajuato and had lived in Chicago for about a decade, Martinez said.

"Right now, we just want to know who did this. They didn't deserve this. We don't understand what happened," she said.

In the neighborhood, three teenage boys said they were worried about a classmate at Rachel Carson Elementary School who lived in the home. They feared he was among the dead.

"His favorite sport was soccer," Aaron Villazana said of his friend. Emmanuel Hernandez chimed in, "He'd get out of school and play soccer. ... He liked sharing."

"I just saw him three days ago. He was walking by. He told me, "How are your basketball games going?'" said Jesus Anderade.

Earlier, Rosa De La Torre's 13-year-old son comforted her as she sat down and sobbed near the home, worried a friend could be among the victims.

Another neighbor, Lettie Magas, 68, lamented what she said has been an increase in crime in recent years.

"I feel safe as long as it's daylight out, but I won't come out at night, no way," Magas said.