Police have released a sketch of a suspect in the murder of a gay Lakeview resident. Kevin Clewer, 31, was found March 24, stabbed to death in his apartment on the 3400 block of North Elaine Place.
While media reports have linked his murder to the murder last August of Brad Nelson Winters, 38, the police say there is no DNA evidence to connect the crimes. The attackers did both use similar methods.
The suspect in the Clewer murder (pictured at left) is described as male, white Hispanic, 5'7' tall, with a slim/athletic build, and he speaks with a Hispanic or European Spanish accent. Anyone with evidence should call Area Three Homicide, (312) 744-8261, case HK-259944.
44th Ward Ald. Tom Tunney has held meetings with business owners and activists to help distribute information from police. Business owners are also seeking to educate their clientelle on safety issues.
The police sketch is of a man Clewer was seen with before the murder. Police still have not said they have a motive, but Clewer's roommate and father have both been cleared.
Police are also not sure if this is a 'Stranger Danger' crime. When a crime occurs, sometimes robbery is the motive, other times a more deadly encounter results. The additional common element is an 'overkill' nature of the attack—where the perpetrator is using far more force than necessary to murder. Some research has shown this 'overkill' is a psychological manifestation of their own internalized homophobia.
The police issued the following recommendations for safety: — Always be cautious about who you allow to enter your home. — Do not let strangers enter your home under any circumstances. — When in your home, keep all doors and windows locked. — Be aware of your surroundings. If you see someone or something you think is suspicious, call 9-1-1. — If you are walking to your residence or vehicle, have your keys in your hands.
Police have not directly connected this recent murder with any others, but they are still investigating for clues.
[Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington chastised Windy City Times for discussing this 'overkill' element as its own kind of stereotype. It was part of her April 12 column where gays said the mainstream media is sensationalizing the story on the murders.
However, Washington saying that WCT is stereotyping by bringing up well-documented psychological profiles of past anti-gay murders is quite off-base. There have been reports and research papers on this topic [even a film by Arthur Dong, Licensed to Kill]. Overkill is not a stereotype, it is in fact a reality.
As the following quote in The New York Blade in 1999 notes, in coverage of anti-gay killings along the East Coast (and the Matthew Shepard killing in Wyoming), 'Vehement anti-gay hatred, possibly because of the attackers' own homosexual desires, is also demonstrated in the extreme 'overkill' that characterizes most anti-gay murders, such as [Alabama's Billy Jack] Gaither's [murder],' said Jeff Montgomery, president of Michigan's Triangle Foundation.
WCT linked this murder only to a pattern of anti-gay murders that have been done by different perpetrators over the course of decades in the United States.]