Lane Bryant employee shot during robbery taken off payroll

The Lane Bryant employee who was the only person to survive a quintuple slaying at the store earlier this year is not getting paid.

It's not clear why or when Lane Bryant took the store employee off the payroll, but Tinley Park police Chief Michael O'Connell said she would be back on Dec. 1.

"We're sensitive to the fact that certainly we don't want our victim to fall on tough times," O'Connell said, adding that employment decisions are between the survivor and Lane Bryant.

Gayle Coolick, spokeswoman for Charming Shoppes Inc., the parent company of Lane Bryant, said she couldn't talk about any employee specifically, but said the company spoke to the survivor recently and she was "very appreciative and agreeable to how she left things."

"We haven't closed any doors," Coolick said. "We're happy to talk to her about any future arrangements."

Last week, the company removed the Lane Bryant signs from its Tinley Park store in the Brookside Marketplace shopping center, 191st Street and Harlem Avenue. The shop has remained a crime scene since the Feb. 2 shootings that killed five women.

The retailer has not decided whether to reopen the store, company president Brian Woolf said in a news release last week.

"It's more a matter of we don't have the ability to get back in the store and do business at this point," Coolick said.

A lone gunman shot to death five women execution-style and wounded a sixth - the store employee - during a robbery at Lane Bryant. The survivor recovered from a bullet wound in the neck and helped police sketch the killer's face. He remains on the run despite a nationwide search and thousands of tips.

O'Connell said he heard about two months ago during a meeting with Lane Bryant officials that the survivor had been taken off the payroll. Store officials told the chief they would look into it.

The survivor worked two jobs to make ends meet and was enrolled in nursing school when she was shot. She has declined to speak to the media.

O'Connell said the woman is coping. A police officer stays in touch with her on a regular basis, the chief said.

Kristen Schorsch can be reached at kschorsch@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-5992. Kristen also blogs about Tinley Park at blogs.southtownstar.com.

Got a tip?

Police are offering a $100,000 reward for any information that leads to the arrest of the Lane Bryant killer. Anyone with information should call Tinley Park police at (708) 444-5394 or Cook County Crime Stoppers at (800) 535-7867.

For more information

Visit southtownstar.com to read dozens of stories about the Lane Bryant murders, to see the killer's face and to hear his voice.