Autopsy Results 'Inconclusive' for Mom and 3 Sons Found in East Chatham Home: Medical Examiner

Updated -- Autopsy results for a mother and her three young sons whose decomposing bodies were found in a South Side home on Saturday evening came back “inconclusive.”

The Cook County Medical Examiner could not find a cause of death for the four family members, WGN-TV News reported.

A neighbor called police Saturday to report a strong pungent odor on the block of Drexel in East Chatham.

The medical examiner confirmed the identity of the adult woman as Latoya Jackson. The bodies of the children are Jackson’s sons, 11-year-old Andrew, 9-year-old Cameron, and 5-year-old Kentrell.

“I’ve known Latoya ever since she was a little girl,” one neighbor told NBC Chicago. “She’s a very caring mother, she loves her kids dearly, and it hurts my heart to hear that something tragic like this had to happen to her.”

Family members and friends told ABC 7 Chicago that Jackson was a private person who was very close to her sons. Recently, they said, Jackson had entered into an abusive relationship.

No one is in custody and Chicago police are continuing the death investigation.

Original story -- A cool wind blew through Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood Sunday on the South Side, but the breeze did not bring relief. Instead, the smell of death, brought forth by the decomposed bodies of a mother and her three sons, disturbed mourners who gathered there in disbelief.

The bodies of four people — identified by family as Latoya Jackson, 27, and her three sons, 11-year-old Andrew; 9-year-old Cameron; and 5-year-old Cantrell, 5 — were found on Saturday. The mother appears to have been struck in the head and burned, according to authorities.

A Chicago Tribune team filed this report on Sunday:

Leon Ervin got up Sunday morning and got ready to go to church. On his way there, he heard a news report on the radio about a woman and three boys discovered dead, their bodies decomposing inside their home in the East Chatham neighborhood.

He immediately recognized the block — where his grandsons and their mother lived.

“I just hoped it wasn’t them,” Ervin said.

Later he got the horrifying news.

Officials discovered the four bodies in the 8300 block of South Drexel Avenue about 8:25 p.m. Saturday. Authorities could neither determine a cause of death nor identify the bodies by Sunday night ...

“We just couldn’t believe it,” said Jackson’s nephew, who asked not to be identified. “We just started crying. It was really hard. ... I’m trying to be calm.”

» read the full story by Alexandra Chachkevitch, Peter Nickeas and Dawn Rhodes on ChicagoTribune.com