A body found in an alley on Saturday was identified as that of Zenobia "Zee" Weatherspoon, her family and local officials say
Credit: Zenobia Weatherspoon/Facebook
NEED TO KNOW
- Zenobia “Zee” Weatherspoon was reported missing by her family on Friday, July 10
- Videos of a body being retrieved from a trash can circulated on social media, leading her family to identify Weatherspoon as the victim
- Her family is calling for social media users to be respectful and not share the “gruesome” videos
A body recovered from a trash can in a Chicago alley has been identified as a 38-year-old woman who had been missing for days, according to reports.
Zenobia “Zee” Weatherspoon’s mother says she reported her daughter missing on July 10, days after she was last seen, according to the Chicago Tribune.
On Saturday, July 11, police were called to an alley where they found a body inside a trash can, Chicago police confirm to PEOPLE.
Police declined to identify the victim, but Weatherspoon’s family and state Sen. Lakesia Collins have identified the woman as Weatherspoon.
“The young lady found at 54th and Union has a name — it is Zenobia Weatherspoon, or simply ‘Zee.’ Let’s remember her for who she was and treat her story with the dignity she deserves,” Collins, whose children Weatherspoon once babysat, said in a social media post on Monday.
Weatherspoon’s family says they learned from social media videos that the body was likely hers. They reached that conclusion based on the woman's clothing, ABC 7 reported.
“It’s very devastating. And it was very gruesome,” Weatherspoon’s cousin Fatima McKay told WGN 9.
The family is asking Chicagoans to show compassion and help remove the video from social media.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
Authorities have not yet announced the victim's cause and manner of her death.
Weatherspoon’s family says she was an aspiring nurse who was attending nursing school.
“She was very lovable,” McKay told WGN 9. “Always full of life. No matter what life brought her way.”
Weatherspoon’s mother told the Chicago Tribune that she loved drawing, reading and braiding hair.
Local organizers are calling for justice and say they will fight to ensure a thorough investigation.
“Too often, when Black women are harmed, the world remembers the violence before they remember the women,” Troy Gaston, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Chicago, said at a gathering near where Weatherspoon’s body was found, according to WGN 9.
“We will not speculate. We will not assign blame without evidence. We will not speak over the family. But we will call for justice, which requires a full, serious, transparent investigation," Gaston added.
Read the full article here
