This is a national case of two sisters who disappeared and were found murdered. Today, these murders remain unsolved.
December 17, 1956, thirteen year old Patricia and fifteen year old Barbara would leave their home at 3634 S Damen Avenue, Chicago, IL about 7:30 P.M. to attend the Elvis Presley concert at the Chicago’s Brighton Theater on S. Archer Avenue near S. Sacramento Avenue in Chicago. There was a double feature that night and the girls reported that they may stay for it. By midnight the Grime sisters had not come home and by 2:00 A.M. the family knew something was wrong. Witnesses that knew the girls confirmed they were at the theater. The search was on by both law enforcement and the Chicago community, something which today is very rarely done. Elvis himself also publicly stated his desire for the girls to come home.
As expected, when no results yielded from their search and investigation, the thought was the girls ran away from home. The family refused that theory stating the girls would not have run away by their own choice.
January 22, 1957 a man located their bodies on German Church Road in Willow Springs, Illinois. The girls were naked and deceased, with Barbara lying face down and Patricia lying face up on top of Barbara’s body.
The autopsy proved that the girls were both murdered within hours of their disappearance. Though it was murder, the result of their death could only be determined as exposure to the elements of the weather. Neither of the girls had alcohol in their system. Barbara proved to have sexual relations prior to her death but it could not be determined if it was consensual.
January 28, 1957 the funeral for both sisters were held at the Saint Maurice Church on 3615 S Hoyne Ave in Chicago, in closed caskets, then laid to rest at the Holy Sepulchre Catholic Cemetery located at 6001 W. 111th Street in Alsip, Illinois.
Their mother died in December 1989 at the age of 83.
In September 22, 1958 another fifteen year old girl Bonnie Leigh Scott was reported missing from Addison, Illinois. She was found murdered by Boy Scouts in a forest preserve also near Willow Springs. A knife had been used and her head was decapitated, with three long deep cuts on her torso. The head, jawbone, several teeth, and a cheap watch were all found about twenty feet from her body. Charles Leroy Melquist was convicted for Bonnie’s murder, sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison in which he served eleven years before he was released, then married and had two children. It is reported that he confessed to her murder. He was never officially named a suspect in the Grimes murders. However, Loretta Grimes, their mother reported receiving suspicious phone calls in 1957 and 1959. The unknown caller said “he was the onethat undressed the girls”. The same night Bonnie’s body was found nearly eighteen months later she received another call from someone with a similar voice, saying he “got away with another one”. Melquist has since died. (Credit to Retired Detective with the West Chicago Police Department Ray Johnson who wrote a book “Chicago’s Haunt Detective” and looked in to the Grimes and Scott cases.
If you have any information regarding the Grimes sisters' murders, please contact the Cook County Sheriff's Police Cold Case Unit at (708) 865-4549