Hello listeners, I'm your host Amara and this is Black Girl God, a true crime podcast.

On this episode of Black Girl Gone, we tell Part 2 of the Murdered Women of Chicago.

If you haven't already, make sure you hold back and listen to Part 1.

This is Part 2.

From the beginning of 2001 until the end of 2003, there had been at least 20 women strangled in Chicago.

All the bodies were found in the south side and west side areas of the city and all of them were unsolved.

As the murders continued into 2004, it was clear that because so many of the victims were black women who lived high-risk lifestyles that the Chicago Police Department was not prioritizing investigating the murders.

In 2003, the murders had escalated to eight women, including Nancy Walker, who had been missing for seven weeks before her body was found dismembered along an interstate.

But in 2004, the murders seemed to have stopped, well, at least for a few months.

Ethel Amerson had been the last victim found strangled in December 2003 and after her, it would be seven months before the next strangulation victim would be found in Chicago.

The first victim of 2004 was Michelle Davenport.

Michelle was 40 years old and she was found dead in a garbage can on July 15, 2004.

The can was located in a vacant lot and Michelle was naked when she was found.

Like many of the other women from 2001 to 2003, no information seems to be available about her murder or her body being found.

Technically, however, the same day that Michelle's body is found, an article appeared in the Chicago Tribune about police warning women to be careful after two women had been found strangled a week apart and a mile from each other.

But neither of the women were Michelle.

However, the first woman in that article mentioned was a woman named Cheryl Wilhite.

There were 41-year-old women who had been found strangled in an alleyway behind Harold's chicken check, a restaurant located on South Michigan Avenue.

Cheryl was found on June 28, 2004.

She had been strangled and beaten to death according to an autopsy.

And a week later, the body of Valerie Crawford was found near railroad tracks.

She had also been strangled and beaten to death.

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