Name: Lydia Thompson
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: July 5, 1996
Location Last Seen: Chicago, Cook Co, Illinois
Date of Birth: September 12, 1952
Age: 43 years old
Race: Black
Gender: Female
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 135 lbs.
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Light complexion. Large vaccination mark on upper arm.
Dentals: Unknown
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
The Thompson family was last seen in Chicago, Illinois on July 5, 1996.
Everett Thompson, Sr. , owner of Eat and Company, a Park Manor neighborhood business, was last seen on July 5, 1996 by one of his employees. His mother reported him missing on July 17, 1996, when she was unable to contact him, his wife, Lydia, or either of their two sons Everett, Jr. and Andrew .
On that July afternoon in 1996 Thompson's father phoned his son, Everett, at the Chicago restaurant the younger man owned. The elder Thompson recalled that he also broached the topic of his son's quarrelsome brother-in-law, an ex-convict, and a freeloading house guest of Everett and his wife, Lydia Thompson. Everett interrupted their conversation to take a frantic phone call from Lydia, at home with the couple's two sons, Everett Jr., 10, and Andrew, 8.
Back on the line seconds later Everett told his dad he had to go home right away. Lydia's brother was chasing her around the house with an ax. She locked herself in the bedroom and called Everett to come home.
The early July phone call was the last time either man spoke to the other.
The brother was questioned early on about the family's whereabouts. He pleaded ignorance. According to police, he told officers the family had gone away, driving or taking a bus to Pennsylvania or Minnesota. Fears about the fate of the family heightened when federal agents reported finding bloodstained clothing, including a boy's sock, in a search of a house trailer, rented by the brother in Gary, on July 14, 1997.
Lydia's brother had been questioned on several occasions regarding the disappearance of the family and was indicted for falsifying his sister's signature on documents immediately following her disappearance. He committed suicide in December of 1997, without revealing any information he may have had regarding the family.
Police say if there was foul play, it happened on July 4, 5 or 6, 1996. No one saw the Thompson family after that time and the brother was seen driving the Thompson van soon after that weekend.
Agency Name: Chicago Police Department
Agency Contact Person: Missing Persons Section - Investigator Connie Perusich
Agency Phone Number: 312-745-6052
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: A-782555
Chicago Police Department
Chicago Tribune 1/8/98
NamUs MP #4603
Added: Prior to 2011; Last Updated: 05-18-2022 - By: Htmlcnvtr
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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