Two In Custody For Bucktown Bat Beating

By Amy Perry in News on Apr 27, 2010 6:40PM

Police have a man and a woman in custody for last week's incident in Bucktown in which beat two women were beaten unconscious with a baseball bat. According to the Tribune, the cops were able to track down the suspects from the women’s stolen credit cards and cell phone records. No names have been released yet and charges are pending, but a source tells the Tribune a search retrieved a bat.

Last Friday around 3:30 a.m., Natasha McShane, 23, and Stacy Jurich, 24, were jumped by a man with a baseball bat and were beaten and robbed. The women had been out celebrating Jurich’s successful work review from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney brokerage in the western suburbs and McShane’s internship, which would allow her to stay in Chicago. McShane is an exchange student from Ireland and has been in Chicago since January as a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. On their way to Jurich’s home from a bar in Bucktown, the women were struck from behind in the head with an aluminum baseball bat as they were walking under the old Bloomingdale Line railroad viaduct in the 1800 block of North Damen Avenue.

The Sun-Times reports Jurich’s mother says her daughter was struck in the back of the head and dazed as the attacker went after McShane, striking her in the head two or three times until she was unconscious. As Jurich helped McShane, she was struck again. She screamed for help and a cab slowed down but kept driving. A second cab stopped and called 911 as Jurich passed out. The attacker stole the women’s purses and fled the scene. McShane remains in critical condition at Illinois Masonic while Jurich is in stable condition.