Family of southwest Illinois mother of 8 asks public for help in finding her killer
Camesha McCline, the mother of eight children, left her home in Cahokia Heights to go to the store.
She never returned. McCline was found shot to death in East St. Louis on Wednesday morning, and her family is appealing to the public to help police find her killer.
Police found her body at 26th and Illinois streets. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:54 a.m., St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. said.
Her family can’t imagine who would want to harm her.
``She was a sweet person. She was the life of the party, a loving mother, who really took care of her children,” said her aunt, Dana Crosby, who spoke for the family. “She was outgoing and was always smiling. We loved that smile.”
Earlier reports listed the incorrect spelling and age for the victim. McCline’s family provided the correct information.
Family members gathered at McCline’s home at 2002 Delores St. in Cahokia Heights on Friday at 7 p.m. to release balloons to celebrate her life, remember her as a great mother and family member, and to pray that the killer is caught soon.
McCline’s children range in age from 2 to 14. Her two youngest are twins - a boy and a girl, Crosby said.
Family members are doing their best to protect the children and shield them from details about their mother’s death, but it is hard because of social media, Crosby said.
”All of her school age children , three boys and two girls, are honor roll students. The two youngest children are twins. They just turned 2 in February,” Crosby said. ”Her children were everything. Family for her was everything. She loved her family.”
McCline’s mother is Crosby’s sister. Crosby said her mother is so distraught she is unable to talk at this time. So Crosby is speaking on behalf of the family.
Crosby said McCline was last seen by family members when she left her Cahokia Heights home to go to the store.
”She was in a car,” Crosby said.
Crosby said she got a phone call later that day from someone she knew who told her that police had found a woman’s body and asked her to call Camesha. She was unable to reach her.
She knew it was her loved one when she learned the female’s body had tattoos with the names of two of McCline’s children.
That kind of news is something no one wants to get, and it was heartbreaking for Crosby and McCline’s family, she said.
Crosby said everyone who knows McCline knows she has eight children and ``to leave them without their mom is cruel and evil.”
Crosby said she is sick of the gun violence that is permeating society today.
”There needs to be tighter gun laws. They’re doing things to make it easier for people to get guns,” she said. “ It is not a black on black thing, or a black-white thing or a police versus citizen thing. The wrong people are getting the guns.”
Crosby is asking the community to step up and help the police capture the killer.
Anyone with information about the shooting should contact Illinois State Police at 618-346-3990 or Crime Stoppers at 314-371-TIPS (8477).
This story was originally published April 23, 2022 at 11:38 AM.
