With Tina’s attackers in custody, it seemed like justice was finally within reach. But just weeks after the brutal assault, a devastating twist changed everything—Tina Lohman was dead. As her grieving family struggled to process their loss, prosecutors faced an even greater challenge: without Tina as a witness, could they still hold her attackers accountable? In this episode, we uncover the shocking turn of events that threatened to derail the case and explore the chilling question—would the monsters who destroyed Tina’s life walk free?
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Welcome to This Doesn't Happen to People Like Me, a 10-part true crime series by the creators of Sword and Scale. If you like the show, you can subscribe to an ad-free version at swordandscale.com. Please take a moment to review and rate us at Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I'm your host, Mike Boudet. The show was written and produced by Michael Stabile.
On November 9th, 2021, 77-year-old Tina Lowman described to Illinois detectives the horrible details of the attack that she endured at the hands of two criminals who broke into her home. After speaking with Tina, detectives contacted the Adams County State Attorney's Office. This brought two prosecuting attorneys into the investigation.
Chapter 2: Who were the key players in Tina's case?
My name is Josh Jones. I'm an assistant state's attorney for Adams County and lead trial attorney for the state's attorney's office.
My name is Laura Keck. I'm an assistant state's attorney for the Adams County state's attorney's office.
Between them, Josh Jones and Laura Keck have nearly four decades of experience as lawyers, and they've prosecuted countless cases, many of which are pretty horrific. Even so, they weren't unfazed when they learned about what happened to Tina Lohman.
The day that I first found out about it was the night that it happened. It was actually at the Quincy Community Theater. And in the middle of rehearsals, I got an urgent text message from the sheriff's office saying that there was a home invasion and sexual assault and they needed to speak with me.
Chapter 3: How did the attack on Tina Lohman unfold?
So I stepped out of rehearsals, got an update on what was going on, and then went into the office the next morning, found out a little bit more about it, and met with Laura and started talking with her about the case.
I found out about the case the next morning when Josh shared the initial reports that we had about what had occurred. And quite frankly, I was horrified because this is the type of case that occurs in a person's nightmares. It occurs in movies, but thankfully does not generally occur in real life. In real life, you don't normally have 77, 78 year old women
sexually assaulted, attacked on the side of the road and in their own homes by complete strangers.
As Josh and Laura began reviewing this case and the police reports, they learned how Tina encountered the two criminals who attacked her.
We know that she was coming home. It was getting dark. She wasn't sure how the lights on her car worked. There was some confusion about that. And so she pulled over to the side of the road where she was hoping that she was going to get some help. You know, it was one of those things that everybody's scared about.
You know, you're on the side of the road and it's dark and she's a 77-year-old woman and she's like, you know, what's going to happen to me? You never really think that it's going to be a nightmare. You live in Quincy. Somebody's going to show up and somebody's going to help you. That's what we've come to expect.
I mean, I've seen, I don't know how many stories of somebody's on the side of the road and somebody shows up and helps them to change a tire or brings them gas or things like that. That's what we would anticipate happening in Quincy, Illinois. And I think that's what Tina thought was going to happen.
The police reports went on to describe what happened to Tina after she was carjacked and kidnapped.
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Chapter 4: What was Tina Lohman's condition after the assault?
He forced her into the passenger seat as they were driving. The man began to force Tina to perform sexual acts on him. They then got to her house. She ran away from them. got into the house, locked the door.
The man kicked open the door, followed her in, ransacked the house looking for jewelry, looking for cash, looking for anything, stole a significant amount of jewelry, stole some cash that was in the house. sexually assaulted her again according to tina he sprayed her with a can of carpet cleaner on her body and in her mouth got into tina's car took her car keys and fled from the location
Also, during the course of the sexual assault inside of the house, at one time the man, the woman, or both of them had a knife and was threatening her with the knife that she was going to be killed. And Tina was told repeatedly they would kill her if she did not comply with their demands.
After the attack, and after the two criminals fled, police arrived on scene and found Tina sitting on the floor of her home.
When officers arrived, they located Tina was sitting in the living room of the house right when you walked in. She was bleeding from what appeared to be the lower part of her body. She was crying off and on. They also observed blood on the floor of the house.
In addition, in the kitchen, which was connected to the living room, it was all kind of one big room, on the floor was a can of carpet cleaner as well as a knife, both laying on the floor. They got a very brief statement from Tina about what had happened to her, which was basically her saying she had been raped and that there was a man and a woman.
After they got that information from her, then they arranged with her daughters for her to go to Blessing Hospital to have a sexual assault kit done.
When Tina was examined at the hospital, she was in pretty bad shape. She had been brutalized. She was still in shock and had bruises all over her body.
Ms. Sloman had significant injuries. She was bruised. She had contusions on her legs and on her arms and on her hands. She had chemical burns or what appeared to be chemical burns in her mouth. She underwent a pelvic exam and there was tearing and bleeding in her vaginal area as well.
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Chapter 5: How were Tina Lohman's attackers apprehended?
miss loman gave the police a generalized description of the man and the woman who had carjacked her and broken into her home and sexually assaulted her we also knew that the suspects had taken tina loman's car and so we were looking for that car
A bolo, or be on the lookout, was issued to local law enforcement for Tina's white Toyota Avalon. Eventually, surveillance cameras captured the vehicle about 20 miles south of Tina's home.
Turned out that that car was later found in Hannibal, Missouri at a gas station. We were able to get the video from that gas station showing the man and the woman coming into the gas station, leaving Tina Lohman's car, I think maybe an hour or certainly less than two hours after the events occurred. The suspects then fled that location, fled across the river back into Illinois.
But once we had the video of them, it was easier to identify who they were. Both suspects were people who were known to Quincy police officers based on prior involvement.
The police had surveillance footage of their suspects and were quickly able to identify them. After they knew who they were searching for, the U.S. Marshal Service was contacted. Within a day of the attack, the authorities located Tina's attackers and arrested both of them. In November of 2021, detectives in Adams County, Illinois, as well as the U.S.
Marshal Service, began their hunt to find the criminals who brutally attacked 77-year-old Tina Lohman. Meanwhile, Tina began what was going to be a very long journey towards recovery.
Tina went to the emergency room that night? Yes. And maybe a week later, she went to see her OBGYN, Dr. Ada Kabuma, is that right?
Yes. Thankfully, Tina had a very loving family to support her. This included her two daughters, Heidi and Ilsa, and her granddaughter, Carly.
The very next day, so November 10th, I did see my grandma. I came out to my aunt's salon where my aunt and my mom and the detective were there. And I got to see my grandma for the first time since her attack. She looked beautiful. She put on makeup. She was definitely more put together than all of us combined. But I did see bruising on her arms.
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Chapter 6: How did Tina Lohman and her family cope with the aftermath?
Just in the time, like she was 77, she was born and raised in a time where you just don't talk about that kind of stuff.
I know that I saw during this proceeding a video of her being interviewed. Not long, I want to say within 24 hours of her release from the hospital after the attack.
And she seemed in pretty good spirits. Tina shielded her family from the graphic nature of the crime. But when it was time to talk to detectives and prosecutors, Tina couldn't omit anything about what happened to her.
The meeting we met with her in person, she was positive and she was upbeat, but it was because while she would talk about the crime, she wanted to talk about anything else other than the crime. She wanted to talk about her life, she wanted to talk about her family, she wanted to show pictures of her family, but she was in denial that such a thing had occurred to her.
Talking with Tina, even at that time, and I don't think ever, she would not go back to her house where the incident had happened. She stayed at a different property that she owned. She lived in hotels because she did not want to go back to where it had happened. And she was so terrified about what had happened to her and that it could happen to her.
Understandably, Tina struggled to grasp the reality of the assault she had endured. She was traumatized. The assault itself had ended, but the pain had not. Tina suffered both physically and mentally.
I'd like you to describe for us your mother's pain. Was she in pain? Yes, she was in extreme pain.
I'm sorry. She was in extreme pain.
After the assault, did she go back to that house or did she stay somewhere else for a period of time?
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