By MITCHELL ARMENTROUT
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
Julia Martin | Facebook
A 35-year-old man fatally stabbed his girlfriend Julia Martin before jumping to his own death last week in the Prairie Shores neighborhood on the South Side, authorities said.
About 7 p.m. Friday, Rodney Alan Harvey Jr. confronted the 28-year-old Martin when she returned to her home in the 3000 block of South King Drive, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
He stabbed her repeatedly, then jumped to his death from a window of her building, police said.
Both were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 7:18 p.m. and Martin was pronounced dead at 7:37 p.m., authorities said. Harvey was pronounced dead at 7:18 p.m. and Martin at 7:37 p.m., authorities said. He lived in the 2300 block of South Michigan Avenue.
Autopsies ruled Martin’s death a homicide from multiple sharp force injuries, the medical examiner’s office said. Harvey’s death was ruled a suicide from cervical fracture and dislocation following a jump from a height.
Rodney Alan Howard Jr. | Facebook
Police called the case a domestic murder-suicide. Friends posted on Facebook that Martin had recently broken off the couple’s engagement, and Harvey, who worked as a personal trainer, had been dealing with depression.
The Michigan State graduate, who worked as a human relations director for a local architecture firm, had wanted to give her engagement ring back to Harvey, and he had came to get it the night of the killings, according to a friend.
Family and friends of Martin also expressed displeasure over a GoFundMe page set up by Harvey’s family, seeking money to help with funeral expenses. The page says that Harvey died “unexpectedly,” but does not mention the murder-suicide.
It does say that Harvey “was sometimes deeply troubled,” and said some of the money raised would be donated “to various charities related to mental health, domestic violence, and suicide prevention.” By MOnday, the page had raised more than $6,000, easily topping its goal of $4,000.
Martin’s friends and family say they have reported the page for trying to raise money under false pretenses, and hope anyone who wants to donate money should help Martin’s family instead. The Detroit native will be returned to Michigan for burial.
—Chicago Sun-Times Wire