Man charged with murder of his missing 88-year-old mother found dead in Roseland, Chicago police say
Family speaks out as they mourn Daniest Graves
CHICAGO (WLS) -- A man has been charged after an elderly woman was found dead this week on the city's South Side.
Kevan Works, 66, is charged with with first-degree murder and concealing a death, Chicago police said.
The brother of the suspect told ABC7 the victim is their mother, who was reported missing two weeks ago.
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The victim, an 88-year-old woman, was found dead Tuesday in the 10700 block of South Lafayette Avenue in Roseland, CPD said. Kevan Works was arrested at the scene and was charged.
After going missing nearly two weeks ago, police now say the grandmother was murdered by her own son.
"Is Kevan capable of killing her? Yes," Michael Works said. "Did I believe he did it? I don't know."
Michael Works doesn't want to believe his missing mother Daniest Graves has been found dead after allegedly being murdered by his own brother.
Michael Works says his brother has a temper and had been to prison, but had turned his life around, even writing a book and owning his own digital company.
"Is it in him... to do it?" Michael Works said. "Well, we have ever imagined him to touch our mother, no."
Investigators told Michael Works his mother's body was found wrapped in a sheet and a rug in the basement of her own Roseland home.
Relatives say Kevan Works had lived there with his mother for the last few months. No motive for the murder was given, as some nearby residents have been left shaken by the violence.
"Put it like this, I'm just really shocked because they said she might of dead," one neighborhood resident said.
Graves' family says she was reported missing after she was last seen on March 27. Her gray 2021 Ford Echo with Illinois plates was found on Chicago's West Side.
Thursday afternoon, as her family grieves, Daniest Graves is being remembered as a church going woman who loved helping people. She received her college degree in her 80s and had just started a part time job working with the community so she could stay busy.
"It crushes you, but she'll live on as long as you remember for the good that she did and she was true to heart and anybody who knows her will say it in a minute," Michael Works said.
McNemon Vincent and his wife Tammy live in Texas, but each day they would receive an inspirational text from his grandmother, Daniest Graves.
When the texts stopped, that was their first hint that something was wrong.
This week, Vincent and his wife learned Graves was dead. Vincent's own father, 66-year-old Kevan Works is accused of killing her.
"I've known Kevan for 32 years, and yes, this does feel like something he could do, and my only hope is that she didn't suffer," Tammy Vincent said.
Vincent says his father lived with Graves off and on, with conditions.
"There's certain stipulations because he is a drug addict and he is a thief," McNemon Vincent said. "It makes absolutely no sense to me. like this woman... it's your mother... any and everything that she could do for him, she did. And he took everything from her."
Tammy Vincent says Graves would want them to pray for her alleged killer.
"She would say, 'I don't want people to be angry. Pray for him,'" Tammy Vincent said. "And so I'm actually going to lead by example, and I don't wish anything ill on him."
"She's one of those people that the world has lost. Not just us," McNemon Vincent said. "You know, she was just amazing."
Chicago police continue to investigate.
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