COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — Three murders in the East St. Louis area could be connected, according to Illinois State Police. Now they're going to increase patrols in the neighborhoods where they happened.
On July 9, police found the body of Sandra Reckmann, 49, on the 1600 block of 56th Street.
Less than a half-mile away the next day, police found Bridgett Williams, 56, in the John Thornton Memorial Park.
Both were in Washington Park.
Around 3.5 miles from there, police discovered the body of Amanda Legare, 38, at the intersection of Jefferson and Bellevue on Sunday.
All three women had been shot to death, according to police.
The three victims all had similar lifestyles and hung out in the same areas, said Calvin Brown, the acting commander of Illinois State Police Zone 6.
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He is in charge of the investigation into these murders.
Brown declined to elaborate beyond that during a brief press conference Tuesday afternoon. He did not take any questions asked by reporters.
A separate ISP spokeswoman said while they would be increasing police presence in the neighborhoods where these crimes happened, the public is not in danger.
However, the events over the last two weeks have struck a chord with some in the community.
"I'm often here by myself. It does instill fear," said Willene Randolph, who lives a block away from Sunday's murder.
Randolph, a retired federal worker, said she's lived in her home for about 60 years with her husband, a retired school principal.
"People think you're from East St. Louis you probably deal with this every day well we don't," she said, noting there are a lot of good people in her neighborhood. She said police swung by her home on Sunday, asking to see the surveillance cameras set up outside her home. They left after a few minutes, she said.
"We just want them to put some real solid effort behind whose doing this," she said, adding that sometimes, it feels like cases in East St. Louis get overlooked.
She said she hopes it gets solved quickly for the families of the victims and for the community she has been a part of for so long.
"I have grandchildren coming up. I sure don't want them exposed to that," she said.
Illinois State Police said if you know anything about these cases to please call 1-618-346-3721 or Crime Stoppers to remain anonymous at 866-371-8477.