8 of the Biggest Deaths in NBC’s ‘Chicago’ Franchise

The jobs of firefighters, police officers and medical personnel are incredibly dangerous in real life, so it makes sense that shows about these everyday heroes should echo that level of danger, right?

Over the years, the Chicago franchise on NBC has done just that. The stakes are high on all three of the shows, resulting in some gut-wrenching death scenes across the board. Executive producer Dick Wolf and the folks at NBC have broken plenty of hearts since the Chicago shows started airing.

Let’s take a look back through the franchise, and revisit the eight biggest deaths of the entire Chicago franchise.

Anna Turner (Chicago Fire)

Poor, poor Severide.

After proving he wasn’t exactly a relationship guy over the first few seasons of the show, Severide finally found love in the form of Anna Turner, a nurse battling cancer.

Severide donated bone marrow to Anna, and they fell for each other pretty quickly. Anna then moved to Chicago so the two could be together. Sadly, that didn’t last too long.

Anna’s cancer came back and Severide helplessly watched as she faded away.

 

Nadia Decotis (Chicago P.D.)

Nadia Decotis’ murder in season 2 of Chicago P.D. might still rank as the cop drama’s most heartbreaking goodbye. 

Introduced in season 1 of the series, Nadia was an 18-year-old prostitute and drug addict who Erin arrests on prostitution charges. After helping to get her clean, Nadia’s life takes a turn and she begins working with the Intelligence Unit as an Administrative Assistant.

Nadia and Erin form a strong bond, with Erin becoming her roommate and savior, acting like a foster mother to the teenager. Along the way to getting clean with hopes to become a police officer, she later becomes abducted, raped and murdered by Dr. Greg Yates in the crossover event between Chicago P.D. and Law & Order: SVU.

With the team making its way to New York to work with SVU, Nadia is found dead on an island that harbored the bodies of multiple missing victims killed by Yates. While CPD mourns her loss and adds her name to the memorial of fallen officers in Chicago, her death helped to put Yates away in prison, leaving enough evidence to convict him.

 

Justin Voight (Chicago P.D.)

While Justin Voight may have been a sore subject for Chicago fans at the beginning of the franchise, he started to grow on everyone after a while.

It was Detective Voight’s son Justin who caused the rivalry between Voight and Casey in the first season of Chicago Fire, as the kid caused a drunk driving accident that left a teenager paralyzed.

Justin continued to have trouble during his run on the show, but he tried to right many of his wrongs when he became a father. Unfortunately, the past still caught up with him, and Justin was murdered in season three of Chicago P.D.

Despite catching and killing his son’s murderer, Voight’s loss still weighs heavily on his shoulders.

 

Hallie Thomas (Chicago Fire)

At the beginning of Chicago Fire, most fans believed that Hallie was going to stick around through the series. 

The on-again-off-again fiancee of Casey was a major character when the show began, but Dawson’s presence continued to drive a wedge between the sometimes-happy couple.

Just when Casey and Hallie were ready to get together once again, the latter was killed in a fire.

 

Dr. Downey (Chicago Med)

Chicago Med needed to prove that it had stakes as high as its predecessors, Fire and P.D. Killing off Dr. Downey certainly achieved that goal.

Downey arrived during the first season, providing a much-needed mentor for Connor. The two characters got incredibly close by the time the finale rolled around.

Unfortunately, Downey revealed that he was battling cancer at the end of the season, and the disease took his life in the finale.

To say goodbye, Connor travelled to Hawaii to spread Downey’s ashes.

 

Leslie Shay (Chicago Fire)

This comes as no surprise to anyone, as Leslie Shay’s death was easily the most devastating moment in all of Chicago Fire.

The paramedic was a series mainstay from day one, and almost every fan loved her caring attitude and quick decision making. She was truly a rockstar at the firehouse. 

Much like the season five finale, the second season ended with a cliffhanger. Fans knew that one of the main characters was going to die when season three began. The entire community was shocked to find out that it was Shay who had perished in the flames.

In a tear-jerking scene in the season three premiere, Shay appeared in a flashback with her best friend, Kelly Severide.

 

Rebecca Jones (Chicago Fire)

In season 2 of the firefighter series, Dawson met Rebecca Jones during training. While Rebecca went on to join the team at Firehouse 51 for a good chunk of the season, she had difficulties fitting into the already tightly-knit group and finding her own way.

In addition to her role, pressures from her father and the chief of the fire department, Rebecca couldn’t handle it and sadly, took her own life during the middle of the season. Though her death was a heartbreaking one, the decision recommitted Dawson to taking his career seriously and becoming a firefighter.

 

Alvin Olinsky (Chicago P.D.)

The season 5 finale of Chicago P.D. gave fans one of the most shocking deaths among the Chicago franchises. 

Chicago P.D. fans were left with a huge cliffhanger after Detective Alvin Olinsky, prominently seen in seasons 1, 2 and 5 was arrested after his blood was found on the body of a man who Voight killed in revenge for Justin. Subsequently, Alvin was denied bail and left bleeding to death from multiple stab wounds outside of his cell.

Doctors attempted to save him, but not before a touching heart-to-heart with his best friend, Voight.

Eventually, Voight and the team inspect security footage and discover that the friendly corrections officer who advised Olinsky before deliberately left him alone to be attacked.