LANSING | Friends of a woman whom authorities believe was killed last year by her live-in boyfriend plan to celebrate what would have been her 43rd birthday with a benefit for domestic abuse organizations.
The benefit in honor of Gena Chiodo, who lived with Donol Clark in a house on Price Avenue in Calumet City, will be from 6 p.m. to midnight Feb. 23 at the Knights of Columbus Council 3450, 178th Street and Lorenz Avenue. Chiodo and her friends were regulars at the hall.
Tickets for the benefit are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. To purchase tickets, call (708) 895-7720 or go to the Knights of Columbus Hall.
The event will include food, live music by The Relics, a Northwest Indiana-based cover band, along with raffles and a silent auction.
Money raised from the event will be donated to various local organizations that deal with domestic abuse, said Donna Wuchter, a friend of Chiodo who has faithfully attended every court hearing for Clark. On Friday, Clark had another scheduled appearance at the 6th District Cook County Circuit Court in Markham.
In that brief court hearing, defense attorney Phillip Coffey and assistant state’s attorneys Patrick McGuire and Tom Driscoll discussed the exchange of information related to the case.
Those included lab reports that prosecutors have and defense attorneys want related to any alleged substances in Clark's body at the time of his arrest in October.
Another court hearing for Clark was scheduled for Feb. 22, the day before the benefit for Chiodo.
Chiodo, who lived in Calumet City and worked at a Munster hair salon, was reported missing to police by her friends in October. When police made a check of her house, they found Clark, who told them she had run off days earlier. But police at the time said they found physical evidence including traces of blood that indicated a struggle.
He was arrested at that time and has been held at the Cook County Jail without bond ever since, even though Chiodo’s body was not found until early December when a hunter stumbled across human remains wrapped in a bed sheet in a wooded area near U.S. 41 near Lowell.
Chiodo’s identify was confirmed through use of dental records.
Please Wait…