Families of 4 women murdered a decade ago continue to push for justice

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - On March 28, 2013, a Cleveland mother and grandmother were brutally murdered. 45-year-old Christine Malone’s body was dumped in a field. Malone’s case is still cold.

In a five-month period from December 2012 to May 2013, there were three other women murdered and all four women were found on East 93rd Street.

On Tuesday the women’s families and the Imperial Women’s Coalition held a balloon release and rally to remember the victims and to push for justice that they say is long overdue.

“She was my best friend,” cried Malone’s daughter, Shana Johnson.

Cleveland police found Malone’s body dumped in a field on East 93rd Street and Bessemer Avenue.

“My mom was found right here behind the gas station,” said Malone’s daughter, Angelique Malone. “She was laid out, beat to death next to this tree.”

“My heart got ripped out of my chest because my mother who I grew up with was gone,” Johnson said. “I couldn’t call her no more and to look at her in that casket knowing that she wasn’t gonna wake back up that was the worst day of my life.”

Authorities say the mother of 8 had trauma to her head and she was strangled.

“This a field that kids frequently go through they used to cut through here and a little girl found her, we was looking for her,” explained Angelique.

Four days before police discovered Malone’s body, they found 20-year-old Jazmine Trotter. The young woman’s body was found under the porch of an abandoned home on east 93rd street. She also had blunt force trauma to the head and had been strangled.

Police did arrest a man for her murder, but the charges were dropped.

Jazmine’s twin sister, Yazmine can’t believe her sister’s killer is still walking free.

“It gives you an eerie feeling, to be honest, and it makes you feel like you’re watching over your shoulder,” Trotter said.

37-year-old Jamella Hasan was also murdered and found on East 93rd Street in December 2012. She was stabbed to death.

21-year-old Ashley Lesyzeski’s body was found in a vacant lot in May of 2013 on East 93rd Street. Police say she had sharp injuries to her head and neck.

In 2017 Cleveland police told 19 News they couldn’t rule out a serial killer, but said they didn’t have the evidence to support it either.

“I think it’s connected,” said Johnson. “It’s just a coincidence that all four of these women were all killed on 93rd and nobody saying nothing, and they were all loved.”

“They come with a scratch pad with pictures and basically, it’s like a kindergarten class, what do you have, there’s no DNA? They kept my mother’s body for days, there’s nothing,” Angelique said. “Yet nobody seen or saw nothing and in 10 years they haven’t had a clue in her case, Jamella Hasan, Jazmine Trotter, Ashley Lesyzeski and all these families want answers. It’s been 10 years there’s no way there could be such a thing as a perfect murder.”

Police told 19 News they have no leads in any of these cases.

“Please if you know anything, I’m so sick of this no-snitch rule because if it was your family, you would wanna know,” said Johnson. “So please if you know anything, please call the police.”

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