

Hammond Police Department detectives arrested Vann on Octofor the strangulation murder of Afrikka Hardy, 19, found in the bathtub of a Motel 6 room. Their bodies were recovered in abandoned buildings, empty alleyways and large trash receptacles from 2001 to 2018, mostly on the city's south and west sides. Vann's recently released admissions made seven years ago have sparked new inquiries by Chicago police and the FBI into whether he is responsible for any of 50 unsolved strangulations of Chicago women. To see MAP's interactive chart of homicide clearance rates over time, click HERE. "When leaders make solving major crimes a priority, clearance rates usually improve and lives are saved." "The Murder Accountability Project believes the primary causes of declining clearance rates are a failure to give necessary resources to local police and a failure of political will by local elected leaders to make investigation of major crimes a priority," said Thomas Hargrove, chairman of the group's Board of Directors. This rate is more than three times the national average. The homicide rate is significantly higher in these jurisdictions, averaging nearly 23 homicides per 100,000 population. This also is a historic high and resulted in a dire consequence to public safety. Most murders went unsolved in 130 major jurisdictions last year (communities experiencing at least 10 homicides). The challenges to law enforcement were complicated further by the COVID pandemic, by public outrage at the suffocation murder of George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and by widespread demonstrations on behalf of the Black Lives Matter movement. The nation's police and sheriff's departments were overwhelmed and understaffed in 2020 to meet the surging demand for their investigative services. The unusual jump in total murders and dismal decline in homicide clearances are inter-related.
