SCC Holmes

Elementary Dear Watson:

• After receiving an anonymous tip this week that her son's body was near the tennis courts in Avalon Park on the South Side, Bonnette Jernigan and her family set out to find him.
  
  "We called police. About 10 cars came out, but they couldn't find my son," she said. "They told me they would look again once the sun came up if I wanted."

Ten cars - we've been on shooting scenes that didn't get a ten-car response.

• Jernigan's ordeal started Dec. 22 after her son went missing from the Far South Side. Iaron Brooks, 23, had gotten a ride from his uncle and a group of unknown men, Jernigan said. It wasn't until Wednesday, when the Cook County medical examiner's office determined Brooks died of multiple gunshot wounds, that what had happened to him started to come into focus.
  
  After Brooks missed Christmas with his 3-year-old daughter and an appointment to get rehired at Wal-Mart, Jernigan already knew something was wrong, she said.

So he's been missing six weeks....after a ride with an uncle and a bunch of unknown folks (or people). You think that Uncle has suddenly become a person-of-interest?

• About 4 p.m. Jan. 5, someone called police and reported seeing a body in the bushes at Avalon Park, but when canine units were called to the scene, no body was found.

That's one search - for a body now:

• In the days after the initial search at Avalon Park, Jernigan's relief dissipated when she was told her son might be in the Auburn Park lagoon near 79th Street and Normal Avenue.
  
  "The water was frozen, so there was only so much that could be done. But we never gave up. We went to the lagoon with chisels and tried to punch holes, hoping something would float up," Jernigan said.

Another search, though foolhardy, by the family. But now they're definitely getting information from someone somewhere that they aren't looking for a live person any more. But no one in the 'hood will give the police definitive info to locate said body - "no snitching" and all that.

• Weeks went by, and there was still no word about Brooks' whereabouts, until one of Jernigan's sons received an anonymous tip Monday, saying his youngest brother's body was near the tennis court by the abandoned tracks near Avalon Park, she said.
  
  The tipster said he overheard a group of kids talking about Brooks' body being left in the area near the tracks, Jernigan said.
  
  The family contacted the police, and Jernigan said at least 10 police cars came out.

Very specific, but again, don't call the police. Call the family and have them call the police so as to distance yourself from actually snitching:

• When the police left, Brooks' uncle walked through the area searching for his nephew.
  
  "He hollered out, 'Bonnie, Bonnie, he's here. ...I feel his spirit, he's here,' " she said. But they found nothing.

An uncle....where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, he accepted a ride from an "uncle."

• The next day, the family set out once again searching for Brooks. About 20 minutes in, Jernigan heard her brother yell, "He's here ... we got him."

Mom's brother found the body.....that would make him....an uncle? Golly, and was this the uncle who gave him a ride? And was he the one who "[felt] his spirit"? And the one accepting the "anonymous" calls? We're going to bet a lot of coincidences are coming to the foreground right about now.

• "I'm so furious. We gave (the police) every clue we had, but we had to find him," she said.

Whoa whoa whoa....where the hell did that come from? Even the Great Sherlock Holmes didn't see that coming out of left field. Nice gratuitous shot at the police to close out the article, as if we killed him or something.