Nicole Townsend

Nicole Townsend was a 31-year-old Black woman who became one of 11 women murdered by serial killer Andre Crawford in Chicago during the 1990s. Her death was part of a series of killings that targeted vulnerable women, often those struggling with drug addiction, in the Englewood and New City neighborhoods on the city's South Side. These crimes instilled fear in the community as victims were frequently discovered in abandoned buildings, their lives taken in brutal fashion.

In the second week of August 1998, Nicole encountered Andre Crawford near West 53rd Street and South Ashland Avenue. In a later confession, Crawford stated he had known Nicole for several years. The two walked to an abandoned wood-frame house at 5223 South Marshfield Avenue. Crawford claimed that an argument began when Nicole wanted drugs before they engaged in a sexual act. He admitted to strangling her until she lost consciousness, then sexually assaulting her. After leaving the house, he smoked crack cocaine and returned to assault her a second time before covering her body with a green blanket and taking her shoes.

On August 13, 1998, a real estate appraiser entered the vacant house on Marshfield Avenue and made a gruesome discovery in a second-floor attic. He found Nicole’s body, which was severely decomposed and partially skeletonized, indicating she had been there for some time. Responding Chicago police officers noted that her pants were partially off and her bra was pushed up, immediately suggesting a sexual assault. The advanced state of decomposition made the initial autopsy difficult. The Cook County medical examiner's office first listed the cause of death as undetermined but later concluded she died by strangulation after receiving more information from police.

Nicole’s case was not investigated in isolation. As more women were found murdered under similar circumstances, a pattern emerged. Forensic testing revealed that DNA evidence from several crime scenes, including Nicole's, belonged to the same unidentified man. This prompted the Chicago Police Department and the FBI to form a joint task force in 1999 to hunt for the serial killer. Investigators pursued hundreds of leads before a tip pointed them toward Andre Crawford, a man known to frequent the area and use abandoned buildings.

Crawford was arrested on January 28, 2000. A DNA sample was taken and matched the profile found at the scenes of seven murders, including Nicole’s. Investigators had recovered a pair of black pantyhose from the debris in the attic where Nicole was found, and semen on the pantyhose provided the DNA link. Following his arrest, Crawford gave a detailed, videotaped confession over three days, admitting to the seven killings linked by DNA and three others that police had not previously connected to the series. He expressed no remorse for his actions.

The prosecution against Andre Crawford was complex, involving 11 murder victims and one survivor of an attack. Nicole's case was tried along with the others. Crawford was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault in connection with her death. After spending nearly a decade in Cook County Jail awaiting trial, the case was heard in 2009. Prosecutors presented the powerful combination of his detailed confession and the forensic evidence. The defense challenged the medical testimony regarding the cause of death and the DNA evidence in Nicole's case, but the jury was ultimately convinced.

On December 10, 2009, the jury found Andre Crawford guilty of the murders of all 11 women, including Nicole Townsend, as well as the related sexual assaults and the attempted murder of the surviving victim. The jury considered the death penalty but ultimately declined to impose it. Crawford was sentenced to natural life in prison for the murders, with additional 30-year terms for the sexual assaults. He later appealed his convictions, challenging, among other things, the testimony of a medical examiner who had not personally performed Nicole’s autopsy, but the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed the verdict in 2013. The case was officially closed, with Nicole's killer sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Andre Crawford died in prison from liver cancer on March 18, 2017.