Can a movie solve a crime?

The Lane Bryant store is now gone, the shopping center on the far west side of Tinley Park has blossomed and life in the southwest suburb now known as an entertainment mecca goes on.

But many still wonder, who killed Rhoda McFarland, 42; Connie Woolfolk, 37; Carrie Hudek Chiuso, 33; Sarah Szafranski, 22; and Jennifer Bishop, 34?

All five women were shot and killed on a February morning in 2008 by a still unknown gunman. A sixth woman, a store employee, also was shot but survived her wounds.

It has been 18 years since the women were ambushed inside the Brookside Marketplace shop on a freezing Saturday morning.

Yet the case remains as cold as the day of the killings.

Charlie Minn aims to heat things up.

The filmmaker and former producer for “America’s Most Wanted” said, “This is a big one — five women killed and the case is still unsolved. Where’s the outrage?”

Minn is hoping his newest documentary, “The Tinley Park 5,” will not only spark renewed interest in the murders but lead to answers.

Police remove the bodies of five women killed in a shooting Feb. 2, 2008, at the Lane Bryant store at Brookside Marketplace shopping center in Tinley Park. (Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune)

The film opens in theaters on Feb. 13. Ticket sales are underway at AMC theaters in Crestwood, New Lenox and in Chicago’s River East neighborhood. More information is available at www.thetinley5.com.

Through interviews, a re-enactment and a review of the case, Minn hopes that “someone who knows something” will come forward and solve the mystery.

At 10:45 a.m. Feb. 2, 2008, six women were ushered into the back of the store where they were brutalized, Minn said.

The store manager, McFarland, as well as an employee and four customers were taken to a back room. While the manager quietly placed a call to 911, each of them were shot.

Only the employee survived. She helped police develop a sketch of the suspect, which, along with the 911 recording, remains on the Tinley Park police website at www.tinleypark.org.

Tinley Park Police Department released this 3-D image of the man suspected of killing five women at a Lane Bryant store the morning of Feb. 2, 2008. Police said the suspect is a man between 6-feet and 6-feet, 2-inches tall with a husky build and broad shoulders. (Tinley Park Police Department)

Although Tinley Park police did not assist in the making of the film, Minn did interview victim’s relatives, a former Lane Bryant employee who knew the lone survivor, a criminology professor and paramedics who were on the scene at the time. He also secured licensed footage of the parking lot at the time of the manhunt.

“It adds to the tone and atmosphere,” he said.

At a shop in Kankakee, Minn staged a reenactment.

“It’s brutal because that’s the way it was described,” he said.

During the 40-minute ordeal, he said, the women were restrained and underwear was placed over their heads. One woman, he said, was sexually assaulted. Another suffered bruising.

“It was intense,” Minn said.

He thinks the search for the killer should be the same.

“Right now, everything is too calm, too dormant, everything has faded into oblivion. Why should it take an outside filmmaker to come into the city to make some noise,” Minn said.

“We need more chatter, more activism, awareness and anger,” he said.

In addition to promoting his newest foray into unsolved murders, Minn will talk about the film with students on Thursday at Andrew High School and University of Illinois Chicago, and at 10 a.m. on Feb. 2, the anniversary of the killings, at Tinley Park High School.

“Of all the films I’ve made, this one is probably the most confusing,” he said.

Filmmaker Charlie Minn, seen in a shot taken for his documentary on the unsolved Lane Bryant murder case in Tinley Park, said he hopes the movie will spark new interest and leads in the cold case. (Charlie Minn)

Minn’s other films include “77 Minutes,” about the San Ysidro McDonald’s mass murder, “Robb-Ed,” an interview with survivors of the Uvalde school shooting, “49 Pulses,” detailing the Orlando nightclub shooting, and a documentary about a case that has eerie similarities to Lane Bryant. “Nightmare in Las Cruces” relives the horror of a Saturday morning massacre at a bowling alley in New Mexico.

“It’s kind of bizarre how it mirrors Lane Bryant,” Minn said. “Both happened on a Saturday morning in early February. Same number of deaths. One survivor. There were no cameras inside. And both cases remain unsolved.”

Chicago is a big city with a lot of problems, Minn said. This case, he said, has almost become “just another crime that’s unsolved.”

But the women who were brutalized, and the community, deserve better. The truth, he said, needs to come out.

Donna Vickroy is an award-winning reporter, editor and columnist who worked for the Daily Southtown for 38 years. She can be reached at donnavickroy4@gmail.com.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/26/documentary-lane-bryant-shootings-theaters/