Chicago police on Tuesday were investigating an attack on two people who were bound, gagged, forced into the trunk of a car and set on fire late Monday.
The attack had the earmarks of a drug-related hit, but the police said it was too early to determine with any kind of certainty just what motivated it.
Douglas Hemmans, 34, of 2553 W. 61st St., and Carlene Moss, 25, whose address was unavailable, both remained hospitalized Tuesday afternoon with burns. Hemmans also had been shot in the thigh and the left side of the head.
The two, according to police officials, were bound and gagged with tape about 8 p.m. Monday, then forced into the trunk of a Chevrolet Lumina parked not far from a junkyard near Throop and 106th Streets on the city’s Far South Side.
Moss apparently pushed through a seat to escape and was doused with water and wrapped in a blanket by a man who noticed the incident, police said.
That man told police he spotted two people leaving the area just before the car burst into flames. Police said they believed an accelerant was used to start the fire.
Moss was in critical condition with burns over 98 percent of her body at the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, a spokeswoman said. Hemmans was listed in serious condition at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn, a spokeswoman there said.
The area where police and fire officials found the charred car is strewn with debris. Two trucks sit in the small lot with their hoods ripped off. Plywood, a broken sofa and broken glass are tossed about too. A burned box spring sits next to the tire tracks and a square section of soot-covered ground that mark the site of Monday night’s fire.
About five houses stand on the block nearby. Most people, like Edna Brim, a resident of the 10600 block of Throop St., took little notice of the lot before Monday.
“There’s so many bushes and trees back there, I can’t really see what goes on,” said Brim, looking out her front door. “I know they sometimes burn cars somewhere back there. But this does make me think twice about safety of the area.”
