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A woman was stabbed to death Thursday (June 24) on Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line after a confrontation with an unidentified man.

The suspect in question is currently in police custody. Police are withholding his name until they announce charges.

“This was domestic in nature. We’re sure of that,” First Deputy John Escalante said in a news conference outside the 47th Street station.

The victim has been identified as 25-year-old Jessica Hampton, according to The Chicago Tribune. Hampton was riding a southbound train when she was fatally stabbed around 12:35 p.m., police say. CTA halted service at the 47th Street station for several hours to conduct an investigation.

Witnesses say they overheard Hampton and the man exchange a few words before he stabbed her multiple times, slitting her neck and torso.

One person who witnessed the crime later found out she and Hampton were cousins. Andrea Patterson told The Tribune she was sitting across from the couple with her headphones on, when she saw the man ask Hampton a question.

“I don’t know what was the question … I did hear her say ‘no’ and she shook her head no,” Patterson said. She accounted the gruesome details, saying that Hampton struggled with the man before falling to her knees.

“She was fighting back, she was crying ‘help me, help me!,'” Patterson said. After he fatally stabbed her and the doors opened, “He walked off, stepped over her body and walked off like nothing happened,” she said.

The suspect was later arrested on the platform without a struggle. Police will use surveillance video to piece together the chain of events leading to Hampton’s death.

Family describe Hampton as a young mother who was working towards a better life after struggling with sobriety.

The Tribune reports:

In January, Mayor Rahm Emanuel touted a drop in crime on CTA property, with officials saying incidents had fallen for four straight years. Overall crime was down 25 percent by the end of 2015, the CTA said, crediting an expanded network of security cameras as well as police patrols and undercover operations for the decline.

But a Tribune analysis of city crime data earlier this year showed CTA did not include in its analysis crimes at bus stops. With bus-stop crimes included, overall crime showed a 23 percent decrease in 2015 over the previous year.

SOURCE: Chicago Tribune | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty, Twitter

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