Relatives believe that an 83-year-old West Side woman’s habit of inviting homeless drug addicts into her home may have contributed to her brutal death.
On Tuesday, police ruled the death of Flora Thompson of the 600 block of North Ridgeway Avenue a homicide. She was found dead Monday evening on the kitchen floor of her East Garfield Park apartment from blunt trauma to her head and a stab wound to her neck.
“She just wanted somebody to come and talk to her,” said Pearlene Ward, 68, who lived downstairs from Thompson and warned her about inviting strangers into her home. “I’d tell her, ‘Don’t befriend homeless drug addicts. Don’t let them be the death of you.'”
Ward, whose late husband was Thompson’s nephew, said Thompson lived on the second floor of the two-flat with a female roommate in her 60s. Police said they had no suspects.
Ward said she last saw Thompson on Saturday. By Monday, after another relative who lives in the building expressed concern about being unable to reach her, Ward went upstairs to Thompson’s apartment and found both back doors ajar. She said she called out Thompson’s name from the doorway and called 911 when she heard no response.
Thompson, who was retired, kept to herself and rarely went to the grocery, Ward said.
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nahmed@tribune.com
