On Tuesday, January 21, Portia Rowland, a city worker and athlete in Collinsville, Illinois, was warming up her car in the driveway before heading to work. In the darkness of the early morning, a man crept onto her property. Rowland spotted the man and screamed, but it wasn’t enough.
Police responded to calls regarding several gunshots and screaming, but found Rowland lying near the garage. She’d passed away from her injuries.
The killer didn’t take anything from Rowland’s property, or the vehicle that was warming up in the driveway – confusing police, Rowland’s coworkers, and teammates.
“This was very out of the ordinary,” Mark Kuechele, the assistant police chief and deputy commander with the Major Chase Squad told KSDK. “The Major Case Squad with about 30 investigators from all over the area have been actively investigating the case, tracking down leads, they’ve obtained a lot of video evidence.”
Her neighbors’ security cameras caught a hooded man appearing to hold a weapon in a different driveway before and after the attack, giving them a strong lead.
Rowland’s teammates felt confused by the driveway killing
When Rowland wasn’t at work, she was playing hard for her local flag football team. There wasn’t a single person who had a bad thing to say about her.
“She had a smile that would light up a room, an infectious laugh, she had such a great soul,” said Bridget Fournie, a friend and teammate. “Portia doesn’t have an enemy in the world. She has never hurt a soul. Nobody has any reason to harm or hurt her… It’s been pretty tough on everybody. We’re all completely shocked and devastated.”
St. Louis Sewer District, her employer, wrote it was shocked and saddened by Rowland’s driveway attack.
“Portia was a dedicated and talented member of our team, whose contributions greatly impacted our organization and the people of the St. Louis region. Our hearts go out to Portia’s family, friends, and anyone who knew her,” the agency wrote in a statement.
