Young mother found slain, 1-year-old daughter missing from Wheeling home

Police making a well-being check at a Wheeling apartment building Tuesday night found a woman slain and her 1-year-old daughter missing.

Ja’nya Murphy, 21, was discovered around 10:20 pm. Tuesday after officers climbed onto a balcony and entered her apartment at 356 Inland Drive in Wheeling, according to Deputy Police Chief Al Steffen.

Murphy appeared to have been murdered and her daughter, Jaclyn “Angel” Dobbs was not in the home, Steffen said.

The cause of death was unclear, he said, but “based upon what the officers discovered would lead a reasonable person to believe that a homicide was committed.”

A forensics team was scouring the scene and the Cook County medical examiner’s office has yet to perform an autopsy, Steffen said.

Police went to the building after Murphy had not been to work Tuesday and had not been seen by relatives since Monday, Steffen said.

Murphy was a 2018 graduate of Stevenson High School and lived with her daughter at the apartment building, Wheeling police said.

Anyone with information can call Wheeling police at (847) 459-2632.