CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
Two elderly people have been killed in their separate homes on the South Side, just blocks from each other.
A 75-year-old man was found fatally stabbed at 90th and East End in the Calumet Heights neighborhood around 10:30 p.m. Police said he had multiple stab wounds throughout his body.
The man – identified as Donald Ellens, 77 – was found dead by relatives who had not heard from him for some time, police and the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said.
A 62-year-old woman was found fatally shot multiple times at 90th and South Dobson 10 minutes later.
Althea McGee, 62, was dead on the scene, according to the medical examiner's office.
There is concern in both neighborhoods for seniors living alone. Both victims were well known to their neighbors.
Ellens mowed the grass for his neighbors in the Pill Hill neighborhood, hadn't been outside for days. The neighbors called his daughter, who found her father in the front room of the house on East End Avenue at 90th Street.
Ellens was stabbed multiple times. Police responded to the house at about 10:30 Tuesday night but it's not known when he was attacked. Police said nothing was taken from the house, which leaves grieving relatives wondering why someone would hurt a man in his 70s.
"This is my father in law. He's a fixture in the community," Steve Wilson, Ellens' former son-in-law said. "It's pretty senseless. I don't know why someone would do this. He was a giving loving, person. That's what I'm prepared to say."
Relatives hadn't heard from McGee, and had asked police to do a well being check. They say a key was broken in a lock on her back door and her Ford Focus was missing.
McGee was a grandmother who had just retired from her job at AT&T. She was active in her church and in the community policing program. She lived in the house since 1975.
Early reports indicted that nothing was taken from both homes, and neither residence showed signs of forced entry, police said.
Police said they don't think the killings are related - and don't have anyone in custody. Area South detectives are investigating the deaths.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
