Ann Iecile Maxham, 22, was found strangled in Skokie, Illinois on June 5, 1977. She was a white woman with prior convictions for prostitution. Her death followed closely after the discovery of 31-year-old Martha Ryan, another sex worker, whose body was found wrapped in a blanket near a liquor store in the same area; the two killings shared striking similarities.

Investigators focused on 24-year-old Joseph Robert Miller of Skokie after witnesses placed Ryan with a man driving an orange Chevrolet Vega and a fellow sex worker identified Miller and his wife as clients who had contact with Maxham. Police arrested Miller on November 5, 1977, charging him in both murders. Searches of Miller’s property uncovered evidence linking him to other crimes, but some of that evidence was later ruled inadmissible because of procedural errors, and Miller’s wife refused to testify. Prosecutors ultimately offered a plea: guilty pleas to the murders and a robbery charge in exchange for concurrent sentences. Miller received 15 to 30 years for the murders and 4 to 8 years for the robbery and was paroled in April 1993.

Does anyone have memories of the Skokie area in 1977 or information that could shed light on Maxham’s last movements?