MAYWOOD, Ill. — A homicide investigation is underway in Maywood after police found a 22-year-old woman lying face down in the grass Sunday afternoon.
Authorities identified the victim as Dyanla Rainey, a former high school basketball standout who, over the last three years, had run a daycare with her twin sister.
While police did not disclose an official cause of death, authorities say that officers responded to a shots fired call in the 700 block of 6th Ave. around 2 p.m.
Arriving paramedics transported Rainey to Loyola Medical University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
“She was just the life of the party and we’re going to miss it,” mother Margo Rainey told WGN News. “Me and her siblings are going to miss her. They took a great person away.”
Rainey recalled her final moments with her daughter, affectionately known as ‘Dede.’
“I was parked right here. I had just pulled up and I saw her pull up. Next thing I know, I was on the phone and I heard pop, pop, pop, pop, pop and I turned and looked around and there was a guy outside of her car shooting,” Dyanla’s mother said.
The victim’s mother said she ran out of the car towards Dylana. She watched as her daughter exited her vehicle before collapsing on nearby grass.
Dyanla Rainey’s boyfriend, Tyran Patterson, remembered the 22-year-old for her heart and dedication on and off the court. The basketball star, alongside her twin sister, helped lead Marshall High School to the Class 2A Girls Basketball State Championship in 2018.
Holding her daughter’s championship ring while addressing reporters, Margo Rainey said Dyanla played through a collapsed lung but didn’t want to quit basketball because ‘that was her life.”
Rainey hopes the person(s) responsible for her daughter’s death will provide her family with much-needed closure.
“You just need to turn yourselves in,” Rainey said.
At 5 p.m., mourners will hold a balloon release at the scene.
Family says funeral services will be held on Aug. 1 at Miracle Revival Cathedral, beginning at 10 a.m.
Anyone with information should contact Maywood police’s Investigations Unit at (708) 450-4471 ex. 4307 or call the department’s Anonymous Tip Line at (708) 450-1787.