Lake Effect News

By LORRAINE SWANSON

Editor

Floral shrine at Cullom and Lincoln where Rachel Gilliam, 25, was killed in a hit-and-run accident on Nov. 1. (PHOTO/PATRICK BOYLAN)

Johnny Zela and Ashley Brown were the last people to say goodbye to Rachel Gilliam as she finished her shift at Bowman’s Bar and Grill in the early morning of Nov. 1.

Moments later, Gilliam, 25 was struck and killed by a speeding silver car on the corner of Cullom and Lincoln Avenue as she was hailing a cab. The driver fled the scene, presumably southbound on Lincoln Avenue from Montrose.

Zela and Brown closed the bar, then walked home around 3:30 a.m. They did not learn of the accident until the next morning.

“The next day the detectives came here Sunday morning,” Brown said, Gilliam’s manager and friend. “Johnny and I were still home getting ready for work. The detectives said they needed to get a hold of Rachel’s family because she was in critical condition.”

Brown contacted Gilliam’s best friend, Suzanne, for the phone numbers of Gilliam’s family. The detectives said they couldn’t tell them anymore about Gilliam’s condition until they contacted her family.

Later, Brown and Zela learned that Gilliam had already died of her injuries hours earlier at Illinois Masonic Medical Center. Brown believes that Chicago Police detectives came to Bowman’s because Gilliam may have had a check or pay stub in her purse because she had left her cell phone at bar before leaving the night before.

“We’re guessing that’s how the detectives knew,” Brown said.

Brown, who lives with Zela, owner of Bowman’s, said that Gilliam was a great co-worker, more of a friend than an employee.

“She loved coming to work every day and had a good time being here,” Brown said. “This is a fun place and we’re a close knit group. We’re very much a family here. We’re more like sisters than friends even … everyone loves each other and we loved Rachel very much.”

In the days following the accident, Brown and other friends knocked on businesses’ doors up and down Lincoln Avenue between Lawrence and Irving Park Road asking if business owners if they had security video that might shed light on the silver car believed to be responsible for Gilliam’s death.

Susan Carlson, a private investigator, said that based on the time it took Gilliam to walk to the corner of Lincoln and Cullom, and judging from security video supplied by Bowman’s and other two other businesses on Lincoln Avenue, police believe that a silver car, possibly a Lexus, traveling at a high rate of speed is the car that allegedly struck Gilliam.

“Went up and down the block, starting at the accident scene,” Brown said. “We went south first just to see where the car would have gone. Unfortunately, it’s shocking how many businesses in the neighborhood don’t have cameras. Those that do have cameras, some of don’t work and others are live feeds.”

Gilliam’s friends’ search yielded important security video recovered from a store at Lawrence and Lincoln that shows the clearest picture to date of the silver car. Two other businesses further down the street have also provided clear video of the silver car before and possibly after the impact.

“We had a great response from everyone in the community,” Brown said. “Everyone was so willing to help. Business owners would actually stop what they were doing and check their cameras. Managers gave me their personal cell phone numbers, but unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot of footage.”

The video has been turned over to the police to be enhanced and then analyzed to see if the speeding silver car racing by Bowman’s at 3:30 a.m. Nov. 1 is the same car seen in the video recovered from other Lincoln Avenue businesses.

Before a press conference on Wednesday morning, framed photos of Gilliam had been lovingly arranged on the mantle of fireplace inside Bowman’s, along with floral arrangements from a fundraiser that the bar had held for her family the night before. Another friend had brought her Yorkshire terrier to cheer up Gilliam’s stepfather, Ron McMickle.

“We just want to see Ron smile,” the friend said.

Jeanine O’Shea, Gilliam’s mother, described her daughter being full of plans to enter an MBA program and volunteer for an upcoming holiday toy drive. Gilliam’s family had planned to reunite in South Korea where O’Shea is presently teaching English, to spend the holidays together and tour the country.

“We’ve met many of her close friends, including Johnny and the staff at Bowman’s,” O’Shea said. “We didn’t understand the depth of closeness of the family how much she loved them and they loved her until last week.”

If you have any information about the hit-and-run accident that occurred at Lincoln and Cullom around 3:30 a.m. Nov. 1, please contact the Chicago Police Major Investigative Unit at 312-745-4521. Residents living on side streets south of Lincoln and Montrose are also being asked to check personal home security systems for a silver car, possibly a Lexus, that may have turned down or parked on a side street during this same time period.