Zita Blum, 66, of Joliet, Illinois, was found shot to death on June 25, 1983. Her sister, Honora Nora Lahmann, 67, was discovered with her; both women had been shot and their bodies burned in their home. The killings formed part of a violent series that hit the Joliet area that summer.

Investigators linked the sisters’ deaths to Milton Johnson, who had been released from prison in March 1983 and was later connected to multiple murders across the region that summer. Reports tie Johnson to a string of particularly brutal crimes, including five victims in Homer Township, a young couple near the Will-Cook County line, and the ceramic shop killings where four women were stabbed and one was shot. Johnson was convicted of multiple murders and originally sentenced to death; that sentence was later commuted to life in prison after Illinois abolished capital punishment.

Did anyone in Joliet at the time remember unusual activity around the Blum or Lahmann homes in June 1983?