Irene Smith, a 25-year-old Black woman, was found dead in Milwaukee on November 28, 1992. Her body was discovered early that morning inside a trash cart in an alley near the 3000 block of North 6th and North 7th streets. Investigators determined she had been stabbed in the neck and manually strangled; medical findings cited severe blood loss from the neck wounds combined with strangulation as the cause of death.

Physical evidence from the scene, including DNA, was preserved. Years later the same male DNA profile linked her killing to other unsolved female homicides. In 2009 investigators obtained a DNA sample tied to Walter E. Ellis that matched the evidence from Smith and other victims. Ellis had been living near the alley area in the early 1990s and had documented absences from a Milwaukee halfway house around the time of Smith’s death. He was charged in Smith’s homicide and others, and in February 2011 entered no-contest pleas to seven counts of first-degree intentional homicide; the court subsequently sentenced him to seven consecutive life terms.

Smith left behind three children; her oldest was seven at the time of her death. Does anyone have memories of Irene or information about that neighborhood in 1992 that could add context to what happened?