Mystery of a Mom and Her 3 Sons Found Dead in Their Chicago Home

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