Relatives say the 88-year-old Roseland woman was a steady source of encouragement long before her disappearance turned into a homicide case.
CHICAGO, Ill. — Family members mourning Daniest Graves, an 88-year-old Roseland woman found dead in her home after being reported missing, say they are trying to hold onto her memory as prosecutors pursue murder charges against her son.
Graves’ death has shaken relatives and neighbors because the case blends a missing-person search, a homicide ruling and accusations against someone from inside her own family. Chicago police said Kevan Works, 66, was charged after officers found Graves dead in the basement of the South Lafayette Avenue home where authorities and relatives say the two had been living. The immediate stakes are both legal and deeply personal: a criminal case is beginning, but the public picture of Graves is still being filled in through the people who knew her as a churchgoing, encouraging and unusually active older woman.
Relatives say the first sign that something was wrong came when Graves’ regular contact with loved ones suddenly stopped. Family members told local television that she often sent daily inspirational messages, a habit that had become part of the rhythm of their lives. When those messages ended, worry spread quickly. Police records said Graves was last seen March 27 and reported missing March 30. Days later, officers returned to the house in the 10700 block of South Lafayette Avenue with a search warrant. There, investigators found her body in the basement, and the case changed at once from a search for a missing grandmother to an investigation into how she died. Works was arrested at the home, and by the end of the week police said he had been charged.
Even with charges filed, many parts of the story remain unclear. The Cook County medical examiner said Graves died from multiple injuries after an assault and ruled the death a homicide, but police have not publicly laid out a full account of what happened inside the house. Local reports said she was found wrapped in basement materials, including rugs and bags. Police also have not publicly described a motive, the exact date of death or what evidence led them to accuse Works. Those unanswered questions have left relatives to piece together the days between her disappearance and the discovery of her body. What is known is that friends and relatives had already begun searching for her, and that concern mounted as the days passed without the normal calls, texts and contact they expected from her.
The fragments of Graves’ life that have emerged paint a portrait far different from the violence described by investigators. Relatives told local news outlets that she loved helping people and remained engaged with her community late in life. One family account said she earned a college degree in her 80s, a detail that stood out because it suggested the kind of persistence and curiosity often celebrated across generations. Another relative said she had recently started part-time work to stay active. In interviews, loved ones described her as faithful, warm and consistent. Those details matter because they place the case in human terms: this was not only a police file or a courtroom prosecution, but the death of a woman whose ordinary habits made her absence immediately noticeable. Her story spread first through family concern, then through police records, and now through mourning.
The investigation also unfolded in public view on a neighborhood block where residents say they did not know what had happened until police activity drew attention to the home. Neighbors told reporters they rarely saw Graves outside, though they often noticed a man going in and out. One woman who lives nearby said she returned home to see the street filled with police and later learned the woman across from her had died. Another neighbor called Graves “a real nice lady.” Those brief reactions offered a glimpse of how sudden violence can break into a quiet block without warning. On the legal side, Works now faces first-degree murder and concealing the death of a person. A detention hearing was expected Friday, and prosecutors were expected to present the court with their first formal outline of the allegations and evidence.
For Graves’ relatives, the court process is only one part of the story. Michael Works, identified by local television as another of Graves’ sons, spoke publicly about his struggle to reconcile the charges with his family history. He said his brother had a temper and had spent time in prison, but he still found it hard to imagine harm coming to their mother. A grandson and his wife, speaking from Texas, described Graves as a steady presence whose messages offered comfort and structure. The family’s comments carried both grief and disbelief, and in some cases restraint. One relative said Graves herself would have wanted prayer rather than vengeance. Those remarks underscored the emotional complexity of a case in which sorrow, family fracture and criminal accusation now sit side by side.
By Friday, the public record showed a missing-person case that had become a homicide prosecution, but many details were still to come. The next step was the detention hearing, where the court was expected to hear a fuller account of what investigators say happened to Graves.
Author note: Last updated April 10, 2026.