Crime scene clothes to be donated

TINLEY PARK, Ill., Feb. 21 (UPI) -- A women's prison and homeless shelters will receive piles of designer clothing from the scene of a mass shooting at an Illinois retail store, officials say.

The clothes, estimated to be worth at least $100,000, were on sale in the Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park, Ill., last year when an unidentified armed robber shot and killed five women in a back room. The clothes, which were unaffected by the slayings, will go to charities, Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Zabrocki said Lane Bryant parent company Charming Shoppes Inc. gave approval to donate the clothes, which had been part of the crime scene investigation until six weeks ago.

The recipients will be the Dwight women's correctional center, the homeless agency Together We Cope and the domestic violence non-profit Crisis Center for South Suburbia, which are free to distribute them to clients or sell them in their resale stores, the mayor told the Sun-Times.