A husband-and-wife pair of attorneys were found stabbed to death in their home in a ritzy Chicago suburb, officials said.
Investigators found the bodies of Thomas E. Johnson, 69, and his wife, Leslie Ann Jones, 67, late Monday inside their Oak Park home, where evidence showed injuries to the Chicago law firm partners were not self-inflicted, Police Chief LaDon Reynolds said.
A medical examiner determined late Wednesday that the couple died from “multiple sharp force injuries” and that both deaths were homicides, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The finding was released as neighbors and loved ones gathered for a memorial for the pair in front of their home, the newspaper reports.
Evidence found by investigators at the couple’s home indicated that they died under “suspicious circumstances,” Reynolds noted.
“On behalf of the Oak Park Police Department, I want to offer our condolences to the family and friends of the two victims, both of whom are known in the community and beyond,” Reynolds said Tuesday in a video statement.
There’s no evidence of an ongoing threat to the public, but additional police officers have been deployed to the area out of an abundance of caution, Reynolds said.
Johnson and Jones, both of whom graduated from Harvard Law School, were partners at the law firm Johnson, Jones, Snelling, Gilbert & Davis in Chicago, where they were known as “exceptionally gifted lawyers,” partner Anne Davis told the Tribune.
“Part of their gift was to keep it simple,” Davis told the newspaper. “Each of them could process complicated information with exceptional speed and agility, but they each had interests far beyond the law and each had a profound gift for friendship.”
Johnson, who specialized in social justice issues, had also worked since 1991 as a hearing officer for the Chicago Police Board. In that role, he presided over a hearing last year for four cops accused of covering up a probe into the 2014 Laquan McDonald shooting, the Tribune reports. The officers ultimately were fired.
With Post wires