YOUR HELP NEEDED TO IDENTIFY THESE CARS

TINLEY PARK, Ill. (WBBM) - Although 3-1/2 months have passed since a gunman killed five women in the Tinley Park Lane Bryant's store, police say they are far from giving up.

WBBM's Bob Roberts has the story.

In fact, more Tinley Park police officers will be working the case in coming days. 

Police Cmdr. Phil Valois said Thursday that between two and four additional Tinley Park officers a day would work on the case.

In recent weeks, the department has deployed six investigators each day to the case.

They will work alongside another dozen or so police detectives from other communities, who continue to work the case on a daily basis as part of the South Suburban Major Crime Task Force.

Valois said investigators continue to speak periodically with the one woman who survived the shootings; he said she has recovered physically but remains clearly troubled by what she survived.

Evidence technicians continue to process fingerprints taken from the scene.

While Valois said it is possible that technicians have the killer's fingerprints, he said they lifted literally hundreds of prints from every corner of the store and that processing so much potential evidence "takes time."

Detectives do not believe that the gunman wore protective gloves.
 
Valois said Thursday that manager Roda McFarland's attempts to alert police by calling 911 were "heroic," but said he could not say whether she sacrificed herself in order to make the call when she could have escaped.

He said the women had their hands tied behind their backs, making movement difficult.

Police believe the gunman made small talk with those in the store for several minutes, then announced a holdup and herded both employees and shoppers into the rear stock room.

As other shoppers entered, an automatic bell alerted the killer, who would go to the front and take them back. The final time, McFarland freed her hands and made the call on her cell phone.

Valois aid police believe all the women were killed between the time she made the call at 10:44 a.m. Feb. 2 and the time the first officers arrived at 10:46.  By that time, the gunman was gone.

Because of that, he said, police believe the killer had training with guns.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has attempted to enhance parking lot surveillance photos that show the front of the Lane Bryant store, shot by a camera mounted on the outside of a Target store 300 yards away.

The more the photos are enhanced, the blurrier they become.  Police are asking the public's help to identify the vehicles.

Valois said police have received 3,000 tips since Feb. 2 and have worked more than 25,000 hours trying to solve the case.
 
A $100,000 reward remains posted for information leading to the arrest (not the arrest and conviction) of the killer.
 
The store, at 191st Street and Harlem Avenue, will remain closed until evidence technicians determine they no longer to maintain it as a crime scene.

Police are looking for these two cars that were parked in the lot near the Tinley Park Lane Bryant store in which five women were fatally shot and was was wounded. Do you recognize these cars? If so please call the tip hotline at (708) 444-5394.