Daywatch: ‘I thought it was going to be a cold case’

Good morning, Chicago.

Months after Chicago firefighters discovered a North Lawndale man dismembered inside his burning home, authorities have charged the man’s live-in caretaker with shooting the man to death, trying to cut his body into pieces and setting fire to the home they shared to conceal his killing.

In the days following Michael Lipford’s March 7 death, prosecutors alleged that the caretaker, DeParris Slaughter, searched the internet querying, among other things, whether death is painful and what the best knife was to cut through a human arm.

“I’d been praying for this for a long time,” said Evelyn Moss, a sibling of Lipford. “I thought it was going to be a cold case.”

Read the full story from the Tribune’s Caroline Kubzansky.

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day, including the latest on the prolonged immigration arrest over the weekend in Elgin, Bears coach Ben Johnson on Sunday’s game-sealing interception and an interview with the cafe owner behind the Mexican everything bagels being served in Pilsen.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, questions the witnesses during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency hearing on “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud” on Capitol Hill, Feb. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett is running for US Senate in Texas

Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett launched a campaign yesterday for the U.S. Senate in Texas, bringing a national profile to a race that may be critical to Democrats’ long-shot hopes of reclaiming a Senate majority in next year’s midterm elections.

Luis Jesus Acosta Gutierrez closes his eyes as he sits on a second-floor balcony of an apartment on Maple Lane on Dec. 6, 2025, in Elgin. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)

DHS claims man detained in prolonged immigration arrest in Elgin Saturday is member of Tren de Aragua

The Department of Homeland Security said yesterday the man they took into custody after a prolonged arrest in Elgin Saturday, where agents sprayed tear gas against protesters, was a “suspected member of Tren de Aragua,” a Venezuelan street gang.

It is not the first time federal authorities have claimed to have arrested members of the gang, which originated in a Venezuelan prison. Trump declared it a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year, reflecting his administration’s emphasis on deporting its members in the United States. In September, a controversial raid at 7500 S. South Shore Drive in Chicago had been billed as an attempt to arrest known Tren de Aragua gang members and their associates in the country illegally.

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Resident Travaris Ivy speaks during a 7500 South Shore Tenants Union news conference in front of the South Shore apartment building in Chicago on Dec. 2, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Residents of raided South Shore apartment building still face eviction after judge denies pleas for more time

Despite a last-minute plea for more time, eviction looms for the remaining residents of the troubled South Shore apartment building raided by immigration agents earlier this year.

They were already living in one of Chicago’s worst apartment buildings. Then came the ICE raid.

Cook County Department of Corrections, Sept. 18, 2023. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

After two inmates die in Cook County Jail, a family seeks answers

The family of a man who died in Cook County Jail over the weekend gathered outside the criminal courthouse yesterday to call for clarity on the circumstances of his death.

Registered nurse and care coordinator Elizabeth Julian, right, talks with a patient during a consultation at Thresholds Centers for Mental Wellbeing in Chicago on Nov. 25, 2025. Thresholds, which serves people with serious mental health and substance use disorders in Illinois, brought the therapy insurance bill to Rep. Lindsey LaPointe. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Advocates hope newly passed bill will inspire more Illinois therapists to take private health insurance

Carey Carlock never imagined she’d have so much trouble finding a therapist for her teenage child. She was a hospital CEO, on the board of a prominent local mental health organization and well connected. Yet the Oak Park mother couldn’t locate a therapist in her community who took her health insurance.

“I found that to just be completely unacceptable,” said Carlock, whose experience led her to change careers and open a new therapy practice in 2021 that now has six locations.

Now, she and others are hoping a recently passed bill will make it easier for people across Illinois to find therapists who take private insurance.

Sergio Valencia, of Mundelein, waits for the horseback procession honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe to begin at the Dam No. 1 Woods in Northbrook on Dec. 6, 2025. Whenever he rides, he said, he thinks of his grandfather, who taught him how. (Shun Graves/for the Pioneer Press)

Faithful honor Mexican patroness in Guadalupe horse pilgrimage, but numbers lower after ICE raids

As they sat atop their horses to begin their hourslong pilgrimage, many Catholic faithful reflected on the Virgin Mary, revered by Mexicans as Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The riders had congregated in Dam No. 1 Woods, a Cook County forest preserve in the Northbrook-Wheeling area. Though they were significantly fewer in number than in previous years — which some attributed to fear generated by the recent federal immigration raids in the Chicago area — they readied for the roughly 5-mile procession to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines.

Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon intercepts a pass intended for Bears tight end Cole Kmet on fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson says DJ Moore wasn’t ‘the answer’ on game-sealing interception

Bears coach Ben Johnson said yesterday he didn’t believe wide receiver DJ Moore was the answer on the fourth-down interception that quarterback Caleb Williams threw in the final minute of Sunday’s 28-21 loss in Green Bay.

“I think he came open more after the ball was released from Caleb,” Johnson said of Moore.

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Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman reacts on the sideline during a game against Stanford on Nov. 29, 2025, in Palo Alto, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Column: Notre Dame is justified in taking a stand against the College Football Playoff farce

Sometimes you have to take a stand, writes Paul Sullivan. And that’s what Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua is doing by declining a bowl invitation and slamming the process that left the Irish as the odd team out of the CFP field.

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Geoffrey Baer hosts the special “Chicago Works” on WTTW. (Liz Farina Markel/WTTW)

Column: WTTW’s Geoffrey Baer takes a look at Chicagoans at work

In his latest special for WTTW, Geoffrey Baer meets with a cross-section of workers around the city to get a behind-the-scenes look at what their jobs entail, writes Nina Metz. “Chicago Works,” airing today, tackles a variety of professions, from city employees on rat patrol to the crew at the United Center responsible for the frequent basketball-court-to-ice-rink changeovers.

The churro bagel dipped in vegan butter and cinnamon sugar at Rosca. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)

Restaurant news: Rosca makes Mexican everything at bagel cafe by chef Felix Zepeda in Pilsen

Rosca, a new bagel cafe making Mexican everything and hibiscus cured lox, just opened in Chicago.

“We don’t want to just be known as a bagel shop,” said chef and owner Felix Zepeda. The business’s other half, he said, is his general manager and girlfriend, Ariana Cabral. “We want to be known for a full immersive cafe vibe.”

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