Mother of 3 found shot to death in Matteson

MATTESON, Ill. (WLS) -- A 37-year-old mother of three was found shot to death Thursday in south suburban Matteson.

Joanie Balogun suffered multiple gunshot wounds about 11:50 p.m. in the 21600 block of South Cicero Avenue, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

Balogun, of Matteson, was pronounced dead at 12:35 a.m. Friday at St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights, the medical examiner's office said. An autopsy found she died of her wounds and her death was ruled a homicide.

Balogun was a mother of three. Her family is in shock.

"She would always, no matter what, do her hardest," said her son Alvin McCranie through tears. "Whether she had to work for a couple of hours, sacrifice her time, she would literally stop what she was doing just for us."

McCranie said his mother was on her way home from work Thursday night when she stopped to pick up a late dinner for her three children.

"They had forgot to put something in the bag and she went back to go get it, and that was the last thing I heard. She was going to get something they didn't put in the bag," he said.

Police found her black van around 11:30 p.m., stopped and shot up in the median near the Menards on 216th Street. Police said she was slumped over the steering wheel.

"Normally when there's a shooting there's a loud bang, so hopefully somebody heard something, sparked their attention, maybe they saw a car leaving the scene," said her brother Anthony Larkins.

Police have almost no information to go off of and almost no leads, but her siblings and her three children need something.

"I just want the world to know, please, this family needs closure," said her sister Keayona Larkins.

The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.