Chicago survivor Nancy Alexander confirms teacher fathered child after decades of abuse

Nancy Alexander, a Black woman from Chicago’s South Side, disclosed that she was repeatedly raped by her elementary‑school teacher Richard Neff during the late 1970s and early 1980s at John Farren Elementary. The abuse began with inappropriate touching and escalated to repeated sexual assaults, leaving her pregnant at age 15 and resulting in a special‑needs daughter. Alexander kept the abuse secret for about 40 years, enduring multiple suicide attempts. In 2022, after surviving a brain hemorrhage, she commissioned a DNA test that confirmed Neff – now 79 and residing in North Carolina – as the father. She told Fox 32, “I was bleeding at the brain, then my daughter got sick… I thought, ‘I’m dying… my daughter needs to know.’” The case highlights the lack of legal recourse due to statutes of limitations, leaving the perpetrator unpunished.