Rosemary Newman's body was found Sunday in a Cook County forest preserve near Calumet City. The medical examiner says Newman was strangled. Her baby did not survive the attack.
Newman was days away from giving birth to a baby girl she named Nevaeh, heaven spelled backwards.
"Whoever did this to my daughter, come forward," said Rosie Newman, mother.
Newman's mother says her daughter went out on Saturday night and was expected to return home at about 11:30. When the teenager did not return, Rosie Newman became worried, not in fear of danger but for her daughter's health.
"I know she was going to be having the baby pretty sooon. So I just started to worry. She didn't come back at the time she was supposed to come back," said Rosie Newman.
Rosemary Newman's body was discovered Sunday morning by a man walking his dog. Police say it is likely the Alsip 18-year-old was murdered elsewhere and her body dumped in the forest preserve.
"Nobody heard anything. And this is the quiet part of the neighborhood and everybody is shocked," said Yolon Minnefield, resident.
Rosie Newman says her daughter was excited about giving birth to her first child. Newman says Rosemary had recently gotten her life together after some rough years.
"She was going to school to try to get her GED and stuff like that. She was studying, she was a changed person," said Newman.
While the Newman family does not know who killed Rosemary, they do not believe her murder was random.
The Cook County Forest Preserve Police, South Suburban Major Crime's Task Force and the sheriff's office are investigating the homicide.
