‘Dead body in it’: Ominous 911 calls made after man died at Ascension-St. Susanna Catholic Church

With the holidays around the corner, locals called 911 twice to report a deceased person at Ascension-St. Susanna Catholic Church.

Days before Christmas 2023, Brandon Gross, Sr., 55, of Blue Island, was found dead at the property, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office spokesperson. 

The cause and manner of death are still pending. It’s unclear if Gross, Sr. passed away inside the church, rectory, or school. 

The HWH obtained copies of the 911 calls—placed within 10 minutes of each other in the early afternoon of Dec. 23—from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office via public records request.

“I’m in between Vine and then Loomis. It’s a church right here. Somebody just said, ‘it’s a dead person in a church,’” the caller says in the first call.

“Do you know the name of the church?” the call taker responds. “The person said something and then left,” the caller mumbles before hanging up. The caller identifies a church on 153rd Street but doesn’t provide its name.

Ten minutes later, a woman walking by places another call. 

A man approached her and urged her to dial 911 about a death at the property. He then walked away. “They said when they went in the building by the church on Myrtle and Avenue, that there’s a dead body in it,” she says. 

Shen then positively identified a church on 153rd Street and Myrtle Ave.— which would later turn out to be Ascension-St. Susanna Catholic Church.

The two calls suggest that multiple people were in proximity to the site when the death occurred, who then flagged down others to call emergency services before disappearing themselves.

The calls raise new concerns about if others were also on the campus at the time Gross, Sr. passed. 

Online, a debate has ensued amongst locals whether anyone could access the property and to what extent. 

The back-and-forth comes as residents nearby have posted several social media videos on Facebook showing a handful of people exiting the church in mid-January.

In one video, a handful of people can be seen running from inside a gate on the southern end of the campus. A minute later, a school bus rolls down the street.

Harvey owns the property and seeks to develop it into a civic center and park. 

The death and trespassing indemnify concerns many have raised about the site location for the controversial civic center and adjoining water detention pond nearby. It’s unsafe for children and neighbors, critics contend.

Temperatures across the Chicago-area recently plummeted to near –10 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. In recent years, the abandoned parochial school and church have been a refuge to the homeless escaping the cold weather.

But it’s also doubled as a place for drug use. 

There are also suspected drug houses across the street from the property, some of which the Harvey Police Department raided. 

Police and Mayor Chris Clark placed a sign that reads “RAIDED” on the front lawn of a home adjacent to the western side of the property. 

Directly across the street, the gate to the campus was unlocked as early as Jan. 5, making the campus accessible to anyone—even after Gross died on the property two weeks prior.

City workers locked the gate as of late this month.

On Jan. 16, another 911 call was made to the property after a person was seen passed out on the church steps.

On Jan. 19, city workers were applying plywood to the buildings, including the rectory and school. 

An officer in an Harvey Police Department patrol car was located outside the school’s entrance.

This story is developing.