Nationwide — Nancy Alexander, an African American woman who was a Chicago Public School student more than 40 years ago, has received DNA evidence confirming that her former teacher fathered her daughter through alleged abuse. However, authorities say they cannot prosecute him because the legal deadline for the case expired decades ago.
Alexander said she spent more than 40 years carrying the trauma of what happened while raising the child born from the abuse. She was a young student at John Farren Elementary School on Chicago’s South Side when she was assigned extra reading help because of her epilepsy.
She said the teacher assigned to help her, Richard Neff, abused her repeatedly inside school buildings. Alexander said the abuse began with inappropriate touching and later escalated into sexual assaults in empty classrooms and closets.
“He would tell me I would have to stay behind. ‘Oh, you need to take a spelling test,’” Nancy told Fox 32 Chicago. “I was repeatedly raped over the years.”
Alexander became pregnant at 15 years old. She said Neff threatened her and warned that no one would believe a Black girl from public housing if she reported what happened.
After she was forced to leave home at 16, Alexander kept the abuse secret while raising her daughter. She said she struggled with depression and survived multiple suicide attempts while living with the effects of the trauma.
In 2022, Alexander decided her daughter needed answers about her identity and family history. After surviving a serious brain hemorrhage and learning her daughter had health concerns, she reported Neff to police and began searching for proof.
Alexander and her daughter used Ancestry.com to locate Neff’s relatives. Their search eventually led them to Neff’s adult daughter, identified as “M.”
During their conversation, Alexander shared a memory about Neff always wearing a specific beige suit jacket when the abuse occurred. M said the detail matched her memories of her father’s habits and helped her believe Alexander’s account.
M later traveled more than 1,300 miles from Montana to Chicago to provide a DNA sample. The results showed a 99.79% probability that M and Alexander’s daughter were half-sisters, confirming Neff was almost certainly the father.
Despite the DNA evidence, prosecutors said they could not bring charges because the statute of limitations had expired. Illinois removed the statute of limitations for sexual assault cases in 2019, but the change did not apply to older cases where the deadline had already passed.
Because Alexander said the abuse ended in 1982, authorities determined the case could not move forward. Chicago police closed the investigation as “Exceptionally Cleared Closed,” meaning they identified a suspect but could not legally arrest him.
Neff, now 79 and living in North Carolina, has not responded publicly to the allegations. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said prosecutors can only pursue cases allowed under current laws.
For Alexander, the DNA results confirmed the truth she had carried for decades. While the evidence gave her daughter answers about her background, it did not lead to the criminal accountability she wanted.
Source: BlackNews.com
