Galena woman shot, killed visiting family in Cottage Grove

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A northern Illinois woman was fatally shot during an annual family reunion on Chicago's South Side.

Family said the single gunshot that killed 49-year-old Gloria Hentz, of Galena, came out of nowhere. They never saw a gunman. Her sister Tesha Hentz said all she saw was Gloria falling backwards onto the ground.

"They all went out to do a little cigarette break and not even five minutes later she was on the ground," she said.

Gloria Hentz was in town to commemorate the third anniversary of her daughter's death. She planned to visit the cemetery where her daughter is buried on Sunday. Instead, she was shot and killed, apparently at random, at about 2 a.m. while standing on her sister's front porch at 97th Street and Dobson Avenue. The bullet struck her temple.

"We thought that she had passed out because she had recently had a slight heart attack," Tesha said.

Tesha said it wasn't until Gloria's daughter tried to lift her that the family realized the pop they had just heard was a gunshot. The mother of eight was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she later died, according to Chicago police.

Investigators canvassed the neighborhood for hours overnight. Tesha Hentz believes the shot that killed her sister came from across the street, but no shell casing was recovered. She said there's no reason her sister would have been targeted, especially because no one in the quiet Cottage Grove neighborhood knows her or her children.

"I just pray for justice for her, that they find out who did it, because it's so senseless to me," Tesha said.