Eight tipsters to CrimeStoppers received awards in May for their help solving homicide cases. Four tips led to the identity and arrests of suspects unknown to authorities. Four other cases helped authorities locate fugitive suspects in murder cases.
One case started out as a missing person's report in November, 2017.
Sean Turner had been visiting from California and had disappeared while in town, his daughter reported from an address on North Main Street downtown. The case morphed into a murder investigation when eight days later someone called the anonymous CrimeStoppers tips line to report that one Larry Milam had killed Turner.
The case remained open and threatened to become a cold case. Neither Turner nor his body were found.
But more than 14 months later, on January 22, 2019, the remains of a body were discovered near the intersection of Fields Road and Cook Road, just south of Fuller State Park in South Memphis. The remains were subsequently identified as Turner's.
Now a homicide case was hot again and the ensuing investigation led to an indictment of Milam for first-degree murder in Turner's death. Awarded to the tipster from 2017: $1,000.
Because of the eight homicide cases - $1,000 awarded in four and $500 in four others - CrimeStoppers had one of its costliest months on record in May. A total of $12,350 was set aside to be paid to 25 citizens for helping solve felony
crimes.