2008 KILLING OF FIVE WOMEN IN ILLINOIS STORE REMAINS UNSOLVED

Mystery of the Lane Bryant store murders: Mass murderer shot five women dead in a packed clothing store before escaping... and he remains on the loose

 

By Alyssa Guzman 

 

Daily Mail

Feb 7, 2026

 

 

Store manager Rhoda McFarland (pictured left) and customers Carrie Chiuso (middle top), Connie R Woolfolk (right top), Sarah T Szafranski (middle bottom), and Jennifer L Bishop (bottom right) were killed inside the Lane Bryant store in 2008

 

The aisles of an Illinois clothing store turned into a bloodbath when a gunman posing as a delivery driver opened fire, killing five women and vanishing through a back door before police could arrive. 

Eighteen years later, the shooter is still at large and the witnesses of the massacre in the Lane Bryant store remain haunted by what they saw. 

Among them is Kevin Collinge, the first paramedic on the scene, who to this day fears that he may be to blame for the deaths of the five women. 

Collinge was coincidentally called to the Target store next door as the attack in Lane Bryant was unfolding on February 2, 2008. 

He arrived with sirens blaring - and has always worried that the noise from his vehicle may have startled the shooter and sent him into a killing frenzy. 

Unbeknownst to him, six women - the store manager, an employee and four customers - were being pushed into a backroom by an unidentified gunman in the store at the time. 

The shooter killed all but one of them and escaped with some cash and goods. Only one of the women survived; she played dead after having bullets aimed at her neck. 

Now, a new documentary seeks to unpick the unsolved mass killing. 

 

On February 2, 2008, a gunman entered this Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park, Illinois, and murdered five women before escaping. The case remains unsolved 18 years later 

Paramedic Kevin Collinge was the first to paramedic to arrive on the scene having initially been called out to the nearby Target store on a separate emergency

 

'I know they were listening to my sirens when I was driving into the Target. 

'That means they were in that store and in that situation, and I drove nearly in front of the store,' he says in a new documentary about the unsolved mass murder,' says Collinge in a clip obtained by the Daily Mail. 

Rhoda McFarland, Carrie Chiuso, Connie R Woolfolk, Sarah T Szafranski, and Jennifer L Bishop were inside the women's clothing store on what was expected to be a busy Saturday when the gunman struck. 

The five women and the unidentified survivor were directed into a back room and tied up with duct tape. 

Store manager McFarland, 42, broke free and made a 911 call from her cellphone. 

In it, she can be heard whispering 'Lane Bryant' to the operator as the gunman's voice is heard in the background.

The killer was heard in the background shouting 'Don't be a hero, alright?' and then 'I'm losing it!' 

Collinge doesn't know if her call was made before he entered the parking lot.

Police missed the killer by only a few minutes. 

The terror lasted around 40 minutes - an unusually long period for what seemed at first to be a simple robbery gone wrong.

'It just adds to the mystery,' the documentary's maker Charlie Minn said of the prolonged ordeal.  

 

Police made a rendering of what the killer might look like based on what the surviving woman told them

A woman places flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the Lane Bryant store two days after the shooting in 2008

Michael Hudek (pictured), the brother of one of the victims, broke down in tears recalling the days after the shooting

 

McFarland was a former minister and was adored by her Lane Bryant staff. She wasn't due to work that day but had gone in to lend a hand in anticipation of a rush of shoppers. 

Szafranski was the youngest victim at just 22 and had just graduated college, while Bishop, 34, was an ICU nurse who left behind three children. 

Woolfolk, 37, was the most 'gutsy' victim - she fought back at gunpoint before being killed. 

Her brother, Eric Woolfolk, told The Denver Post in 2008 that her body had bruising on it when it was found. 

'He might have tortured her. This person is obviously a sick person,' he said. 

Two days after the killings police released a sketch of the suspect from the description the surviving victim gave them.

She said he was a black man, aged 25 to 35, 5ft 8in to 5ft 10in tall and weighing 200lbs to 230lbs. 

He had a receding hairline and thick braided hair, with one braid sporting four green beads.

He made off with a few hundred dollars and some jewelry in the deadly heist. 

Minn said he made the documentary to garner much-needed attention toward the murders and to bring justice for the victims' families. 

He is hopeful that social media sleuths will be able to solve what the Tinley Park Police have never been able to.  

'The lack of transparency and communication is revolting, and it's already made a difficult case even that much harder to crack.

'For 18 years, it's been horrific in terms of the results,' he said. 

'We need a fresh set of eyes on this thing. We need something more innovative, something more groundbreaking.' 

Minn has contacted police multiple times to discuss the case, but says he's received  no response.

Phil Valois, the Tinley Park police commander who initially oversaw the case, spoke on the first anniversary of the shooting saying there were still a number of unanswered questions as to why a gunman would rob the store in broad daylight. 

 

 

Filmmaker Charlie Minn told the Daily Mail that he doesn't believe the Tinley Park Police Department has done enough to solve the murder and is hoping his documentary will help 

 

'There’s a lot of theories,' Valois told NBC News at the time. 

'He might have had bad info. He might not have thought it out very well. There’s any number of reasons he might have done it the way he did it.'

A $100,000 reward was offered in 2008 for any information leading to an arrest.

An audio recording of the shooter's voice from the 911 call, a wanted poster and reward information is still on Tinley Park government's website.

Who Killed These Women? will be released in four Chicago area movie theaters - AMC River East 21, AMC Crestwood 18 and AMC New Lenox 14. It will also premiere at the Marcus Orland Park theater. 

It is set to be released on February 13. For non-Chicago-area residents, the film will be released on Amazon Prime a few months after its theater debut. 

The store shuttered after the shooting and a TJ Maxx was opened in its place in 2013.