Families grieve for two slain men found in Camaro in Englewood

Sun-Times Media Wire — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:07:38 -0500

Antwone Price liked expensive toys, and he wasn’t shy about showing off the fruits of his success as a hip-hop concert promoter.

But mostly, Price — a Daley Center clerk by day — was a family man, his fiancée, Kiara Robinson, said Thursday, a day after Price’s body was found stuffed in the trunk of his car in the 7100 block of South Oakley. His friend, Trevin Hullum, was found dead in the back seat.

Robinson -- with her engagement ring glittering in the sunlight -- sobbed as she talked about her frantic search for Price after he failed to return to their south suburban home from a late-night meeting with a business associate Wednesday morning.

"Antwone told me his every move," explained the woman with whom Price shared a 17-month-old daughter.

But Robinson said she never heard back from Price — who had promoted concerts by rappers T.I., Gucci Mane and Chief Keef — after he went out to pick up $5,000 he’d lent to a business partner, a debt Robinson said he’d been trying to collect for some time.

Robinson called Price’s cellphone but got no answer. She tried filing a police report but was told Price hadn’t been missing long enough. She called OnStar, the satellite service Price had for his 2010 Chevrolet Camaro. The OnStar operator couldn’t reach Price in his car. Robinson drove around for hours, looking to places she thought her fiancé might have gone.

Finally, she went to the police station at 51st and Wentworth, where Robinson broke down and said she fibbed to say the car had been stolen.

This time, when police called OnStar, she could overhear the operator provide the car’s location, and she beat police to the spot, where she saw Hullum’s body in the back seat.

By the time police arrived and opened the trunk, “I already knew [Price] was gone. I had a gut feeling.”

Price, 33, of the 3300 block of West 157th Place in Markham, was pronounced dead on the scene at 5:41 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

Hullum, 22, of the 1500 block of West 63rd Street in Chicago, was pronounced dead at the scene minutes before at 5:34 p.m., the medical examiner’s office said.

An autopsy was conducted on Thursday to determine how the two men died, but the medical examiner’s officer has not yet released the results as of Friday morning.

Myrtis Price, Antwone Price’s grandmother and the woman who raised him, said she also knew that her grandson had gone to retrieve the $5,000 debt. But some time early Wednesday, she got a disturbing call from someone demanding a ransom in exchange for her grandson, she said.

"They said they had my grandson and they wanted $5,000," Price said.

"If I didn’t give them the $5,000, they would kill him."

Myrtis Price said she told the kidnapper she had no way of coming up with the money.

She said she knew her grandson had “enemies,” and at one point, her grandson told her cryptically, “If I don’t do what they want me to do, they will kill you, Grandma.”

But her grandson never named the enemies. Nor did he say why, specifically, anyone would want to hurt the Price family, she said.

Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown said Price "was a dedicated and kind employee who was very well liked by his colleagues."

No one had been arrested in the case Thursday.

Meanwhile, Hullum’s girlfriend LaShonta Charles said she has lost her “rock.”

“He was a very good dad,” said Charles, who shared a daughter with Hullum. “He was all I had. He made it his business to make sure we were okay.”

Trevin Hullum | Homicide Watch Chicago

Families grieve for two slain men found in Camaro in Englewood