Family offers reward for help finding killer of deacon attacked on birthday

The family of a married Chicago deacon and father of six who died after he was viciously attacked on his 59th birthday in what police suspect could have been a road rage incident, is now offering a $5,000 reward for information that can help them understand why he was attacked.

Stephen Strode, the late deacon who served at Chicago's Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church for nearly 30 years, was heading home on his birthday the morning of Dec. 10 when he was rear-ended on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

Surveillance footage shows Strode getting out of his car to check for damage when another car pulls up behind him. Two men emerge from the second vehicle and something happens but it is unclear from the footage NBC Chicago reported. Strode’s widow Monique believes one of the men attacked her husband in an episode that lasted less than one minute.

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“This had to be some sort of rage. I don’t know if it was because of the accident or an attempted carjacking,” Monique Strode said.

Her husband was later found by police unable to speak and badly beaten in the 100 block of E. Marquette Road.

Strode was hospitalized and he eventually died on Dec. 29.

“Family, friends, co-workers, and everyone who has prayed for Steve's recovery, it pains me to share that Steve lost his battle to survive the senseless attack that two individuals, who have yet to be apprehended, inflicted upon him on December 10, 2022, a day that would otherwise be spent celebrating his 59th birthday,” Monique Strode wrote on a GoFundMe campaign she started for her husband after he was attacked. “The one silver lining that we all can be thankful for is that even in death, Steve's generosity continues as an organ donor, and others will be granted the continued gift of life because of Steve.”

Monique Strode is eager to get justice but there are still no leads in the case.

“My husband had six children and now they don’t have their father,” she told NBC Chicago. “We just pray and hope that you have [the] will to come forward to help us find who murdered my husband.”

The grieving wife, who only managed to raise half of a $50,000 goal she set on her GoFundMe campaign, thanked everyone who supported her as she tried to do what she could to keep her husband alive.

“The physical void of losing my husband will never be filled, but I thank everyone for the outpouring of love and care that has been and will continue to be showered upon my family and me,” she said.

The widow of the late deacon further explained that the money raised from the campaign would go toward his recently held funeral and starting a foundation that would celebrate his humanitarian spirit.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,” she wrote. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7.”