Cancer Patient Dies After Severe Beating in Zion

A $25,000 reward is being offered for information in the murder of a 46-year-old cancer patient from Missouri who was being treated in north suburban Zion.

Shannon Vincel, of Springfield, Mo., was sitting outside the Guest Quarters, a hotel property for the Cancer Treatment Center of America, when she was attacked Monday night. Police said she was struck her in the head with a blunt object around 9:48 p.m. near 27th Street and Gabriel Avenue.

Vincel died Tuesday night at Condell Medical Center in Libertyville. Her family took her off life support after a severe head injury.

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Vincel had been traveling to and from Zion every two weeks for radiation treatment for breast cancer, and had just returned on Monday after celebrating her mother’s birthday.

“She was a very nice person, very, very outgoing, and very talkative. A sweet person, she was very sweet,” said Charlie Moats, a Guest Quarters visitor.

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