A video showing Zenobia Weatherspoon’s body being discovered in a garbage can in a Back of the Yards alley spread widely online this summer, drawing outrage and demands for answers about how she died. Her family had reported the 38-year-old missing and, based on the video, she had been there a while.
“Women feel less safe,” Block Club Chicago reported one man saying during a neighborhood cleanup event shortly after the discovery.
“That’s just an evil spirit, and I hope that that person is found, and the punishable act will be appropriate to bring justice to her family,” Ald. Stephanie Coleman said in the news outlet’s coverage.
“Pure evil to me” began the Chicago Tribune headline.
About a week later, as news coverage of the case swirled, Weatherspoon’s brother, Javan, allegedly shot a woman whom he was convinced had information about Zenobia’s death. He was quickly jailed on an attempted murder charge. Prosecutors noted during his July detention hearing that Zenobia’s passing “is being treated as a death investigation, not a homicide.” That detail, while mentioned in news coverage, was lost in the headlines.
Two months later, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office investigation of her death is now complete. The results? Inconclusive. The office’s investigators could not determine what caused her death, nor could they determine if her death was natural, accidental, or caused by another person. However, gunshot and opioid overdose were both ruled out.
Meanwhile, Javan Weatherspoon remains in the Cook County Jail, accused of shooting a woman he believed knew something about his sister’s death.
At about 2:15 p.m. on July 19, eight days after Zenobia was found, surveillance video allegedly captured Weatherspoon walking in the 5400 block of South Halsted Street, less than a block from where his sister’s body was discovered. He was yelling at a 45-year-old woman who was in a nearby parking lot: “What do you know about my sister?”
Prosecutors said the woman was Zenobia’s friend and one of the people who found her body. They said Weatherspoon had accused her on several occasions of knowing something about his sister’s death. As Weatherspoon approached the parking lot, the woman told him she did not know anything about his sister’s death, prosecutors said. Weatherspoon allegedly entered the lot, where the two exchanged words before he pistol-whipped the woman, causing her to fall to the ground. Prosecutors said the woman was not armed.
While she was down, Weatherspoon stood over her and fired once into her pelvic region before walking away, prosecutors said. He then returned to the parking lot, argued with the woman again and fired a second shot that did not strike her before leaving as a witness called 911, according to the allegations. Investigators later learned that Weatherspoon and the woman had gone into a building together earlier that day to steal a television, prosecutors said. While they were inside, Weatherspoon allegedly displayed a gun and threatened her.
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