Robbery Not A Motive In 3 Murders

Three slain Washington women were last seen alive together late Friday, about five hours before their bodies were found lined up in a row on a rural road, investigators said Sunday. They reportedly were on their way to a Washington nightclub when last seen.

U.S. Park Police declined to say where the women were seen about 11 p.m. Friday, or by whom. But robbery apparently was not a motive in their deaths, police said. The women’s purses, undisturbed and carrying identification, were found with them.

A Baltimore medical examiner performed autopsies Saturday on Mishann Chinn, 23; Tanji Jackson, 21, and Tamika Black, 19. But the medical examiner’s office would not release any information on Sunday.

The women had known each other for at least five years, said Officer Richard Edwards.

Black’s mother, Joyce Gaston, told The Washington Post that her daughter had been picked up by her two friends, along with two unidentified men, in a white car between 11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Friday. They had planned to go to a rap, rhythm and blues club located in an area of Southeast Washington where several shootings and other violent crimes have occurred, the newspaper reported in Monday’s editions.

Their bodies were found about 4 a.m. Saturday near the Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge.