More than 100 family members, friends and neighbors packed into the basement of an Evanston church Friday to pay tribute to Linda Twyman, a 43-year-old mother of one who was found dead of stab wounds in her Evanston apartment two months ago.
Organizers said they hoped the memorial would keep attention focused on the unsolved case and help ease the pain of a community still recovering from what residents called a senseless crime.
“We pretty much all believe somebody came here to kill her,” said Mary Krawczyk, Twyman’s next door neighbor of five years. “The real mystery is why?”
“People who didn’t know her might say ‘You don’t know, she might have been into this, she might have been into that.’ We know. She wasn’t into anything. Like the police said, she didn’t even have a parking ticket.”
As 7 p.m. passed, a crowd gathered for a brief candlelight vigil and minute of silence outside the entrance to Twyman’s apartment building on the 1100 block of Ashland Avenue. Candles in hand, the group then made a short walk to the Ascension of the Lord Malankara Catholic Church, where loved ones shared their memories of Twyman.
His voice trembling slightly as he began, Twyman’s fiance David Bakke told the crowd that this was his first memorial. He recalled Twyman’s favorite places, foods and movies. He reminisced about her outgoing personality – she never got over her habit of talking to strangers on the El. She also never learned to drive.
“I hope keeping an awareness will help us find the person or persons who did this, and we can take them off the street and make sure nobody does this again,” Bakke said.
Law enforcement representatives spoke to encourage the crowd to share any information they might have about the crime, no matter how unrelated or insubstantial it might seem.
“A crime is like a puzzle,” said George McDade of Crime Stoppers International. “No piece of evidence, no rumor you hear, discount. We don’t know the puzzle.”
Frank Kaminski, Chief of the Evanston Police Department, told the crowd EPD had investigated more than 100 leads and forensic evidence was just returning from laboratory testing. Two detectives are assigned full time to the case, he said.
“When we’re arresting people we’re asking if they know anything about it,” he said.
But EPD does not yet “have a clear cut theory of the case,” said Deputy Chief Joseph Bellino.
Members of the community expressed varied reactions to the crime. Some said they feel terrified, while others are less worried because they believe Twyman was specifically targeted. Right after the crime, at least one family moved from Twyman’s apartment building to a new neighborhood.
Bob Nierodzik, a 50-year neighborhood resident, said there had never been such a violent or tragic crime in the area. People are understandably uneasy, he said.
“Was this a neighborhood person who was responsible?” he asked. “Was it someone who came up from the South Side of Chicago? It’s the uncertainty that causes the apprehension of it.”
Reach Jordan Weissmann at [email protected].
