(NewsNation) — A former paramedic is describing what he saw in February 2008 when he arrived at a Chicago area Lane Bryant store, shortly after five women were fatally shot and as police talked with an “inconsolable” survivor.
Kevin Collinge and his partner answered a medical call Feb. 2, thinking they would only need to stabilize one victim at a shopping plaza in southwest suburban Tinley Park. That assumption changed quickly, he said, when three police officers exited the store, looking for a suspect, and one of them told him there were “five ladies shot in the store.”
Collinge said he moved quickly through the “dark and quiet” retail outlet before entering a back room.
“It’s difficult to talk about what I seen there,” he told “Banfield” on Thursday.
Five women were lying face down with their hands restrained, he recalled, with clothing items used as blindfolds. Another patient was alive, around a corner.
“There was a police officer speaking to one survivor, who was just unconsolable. Her voice still rings in my head pretty clear to this day,” Collinge said. “You just can’t get it out of your head.”
The five women who died were Carrie Chiuso, 33; Connie Woolfolk, 37; Sarah Szafranski, 22; Rhoda McFarland, 42; and Jennifer Bishop, 34.
The Lane Bryant massacre remains unsolved to this day, long after authorities released sketches of a suspect and garbled audio of the killer’s voice that is heard on a 911 recording made when one of the victims called for help. Police arrived quickly after that call, but the gunman had already fled.
Filmmaker Charlie Minn, who has worked on a documentary about the case, said he hopes to interview the lone survivor, who has not been publicly identified.
“This case needs a spark, and I think the lone survivor can deliver that spark,” he said. “This case has gone dormant, and it’s the largest unsolved mass shooting in modern-day America.”
A $100,000 reward is still offered for information that leads to the arrest of the killer, according to the Village of Tinley Park. Authorities are taking tips at lanebryant.tipline@tinleypark.org.