Man and woman dead in murder-suicide on Chicago Skyway

SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE - A man and woman died in a murder-suicide early Wednesday that closed the outbound Chicago Skyway for over five hours.

They were in a car heading east on the Skyway near the Toll Plaza at 88th Street at 4:11 a.m. when 49-year-old Lisa Fischer got out of the vehicle, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Christopher M. Pena, 30, then got out of the still-moving car and fired shots at Fischer, striking her multiple times, authorities said. The car kept going and crashed into the concrete wall separating the inbound and outbound lanes of the Skyway just west of the plaza.

A Chicago Police officer responding to the shooting saw Pena running back toward the vehicle, authorities said. The officer told him to stop, but Pena raised the handgun and shot himself in the head.

Fischer, of west suburban Broadview; and Pena, of the West Side Austin neighborhood, were both pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. Autopsies Thursday ruled Fischer’s death a homicide, and Pena’s death a suicide.

The eastbound lanes of the Skyway were closed for over five hours, reopening about 10 a.m., police said.