Eighteen years after five women were shot and killed in a Tinley Park Lane Bryant store, more than 50 people sat in a theater just seven miles down the road from the store Friday to watch a reenactment of the unsolved killings.

The reenactment was part of a documentary on the shootings, entitled “Who Killed These Women,” that debuted Friday at some theaters including Marcus Orland Park Cinema.

Charlie Minn, the filmmaker and also the former producer for “America’s Most Wanted,” called the Tinley Park police “aloof” in the film and said police are holding information from the public to a fault, sparking pushback from police and village officials.

Minn said he hoped the documentary would spark renewed interest in the murders and lead to answers.

He said Tuesday he believes social media will solve the case but said people need substantive information to help. He said the fact that Tinley police did not participate in the film hurt it.

“They don’t have to like me,” he said. “This is about solving the case. This is about results.”

In the film, a statement attributed to the Tinley Park police read that Minn’s previous work in an “America’s Most Wanted” segment brought in a lot of unhelpful tips that pulled police away “from meaningful, focused work on the case.”

“That experience has made us extremely cautious about any media involvement,” the statement read.

But Tinley Park Village Administrator Pat Carr said Tuesday village officials did not release a public statement to Minn. He said he can not comment because he had not seen the statement.

The statement was included in an email Minn provided to the Daily Southtown he said was from a Tinley Park police detective.

Minn was to speak about the documentary a few weeks ago at area high schools, but his appearances were canceled apparently because of concern about disparaging the police.

Filmgoers have both praised and criticized the film, which in addition to the reenactment included interviews with family members of some victims, paramedics who responded to the shootings, Lane Bryant employees and a few experts.

More than 1,000 tickets were sold across four theaters in the Chicago area through Sunday, with 467 tickets sold at the Crestwood AMC theater, according to emails from theater general managers to the filmmaker Charlie Minn.

The film was shown in Crestwood, New Lenox, Orland Park and Chicago’s River East.

Several moviegoers at the Orland Park theater said Friday they felt the film unfairly blamed Tinley Park police and the one surviving victim for the case being unsolved.

Other people at that screening said the film inspired them to learn more about the case. They said they would like the Tinley Park Police Department to share more details about the case.

“Why would they not allow to be interviewed?” asked Karin Hanson, of Oak Forest. “It’s very suspicious.”

Wilma Swanson, of Peotone, called herself and her friends “granny crime solvers” and said she believes the case is solvable. She said the information from the film gave her new theories about the case, which she said she would like to discuss on a Facebook page or online chat space.

Swanson said she attended because she remembers when she heard about the shootings in 2008, and said she used to shop at the Lane Bryant store.

Carol Betley, a more than 30-year resident of Tinley Park, said she was shopping in the Target across the parking lot from the Lane Bryant store Feb. 2, 2008, the morning of the shootings.

She said she saw the film because she hoped to find more answers about the unsolved case. She said she wondered why the robbery took place in the morning in a store with little cash on hand.

Michelle Klein, of Mokena, said she learned several new details about the case from the film, such as the shooter allegedly being in the Lane Bryant store for 40 minutes before fleeing.

Kristin Siville, who attended with her mother, said she and other residents still have a heightened awareness when shopping at stores in Brookside Marketplace, where Lane Bryant was located.

Siville also said she was angry about speculation in the film that the shooter might be dead, because she said this could mean the victims and public might never receive answers.

Debbie Melchert, a Tinley Park resident, said the film included “constant bashing” of the Tinley Park police because they would not talk with the director or release new details. She said she did not appreciate this and wanted to know why details would be given on a still active investigation.

She said she appreciated that a victim’s brothers refused to blame anyone but the killer, even when asked seemingly “baited questions to bad mouth the Police Department and the investigation as a whole.”

Minn said since the film’s debut, he has received a lot of tips and information on the case, which he said he forwarded to Tinley Park Police and the FBI.

Minn also hosted an event Monday outside the T.J. Maxx store along West 191st Street, where the Lane Bryant store once stood. He recommended the Federal Bureau of Investigations become more involved and said the $100,000 reward for information on the killer might be raised.

awright@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/17/lane-bryant-documentary-tinley-park-police/