May 2022 | Issue #5
Quick trip to store ruins family’s
holiday as man is shot in his car

         It was Christmas and Deron Davis had spent the day with his family in the Raleigh area of Memphis. As evening approached, he left the house to shop at a nearby store.

         Minutes later, Davis’s wife’s phone rang. It was her husband’s phone but all she could hear was music playing. She said his name but there was no answer so she ended the call.

         About that time — it officially was 7:17 p.m. December 25, 2019 — Memphis Police officers assigned to the Austin Peay station were dispatched to check out a shooting report near the intersection of Tessland Road and Hawkins Mill Road. They arrived to find a shooting victim inside a Volkswagon.

Davis was suffering from gunshot wounds and was unresponsive. Memphis Fire paramedics got to the scene and transported Davis to Regional One Hospital in critical condition. He later died..

         This investigation remains open but detectives need new leads. Was Davis shot after a verbal altercation? Did he know his attackers? Was he targeted for some reason?

         Anyone with information is asked to contact the MPD Cold Case Unit, or call CrimeStoppers anonymously at (901) 528-CASH (2274).
Elbert Williams

Unsolved murders hard to crack
but even very old cases can be

The Memphis Police Department’s Cold Case bureau handles open felony cases once a case has reached a point where the initial investigation has slowed due to lack of evidence or witnesses or leads.

           Detectives look over files with fresh eyes, sometimes talk to potential witnesses and family members in case something is remembered or new information has been heard.

           The process is slow, steady and on no clock.
           In virtually all unsolved murders, rapes and other violent crimes, someone knows something that could help heat up the investigation. Of course, DNA evidende now can help solve cases, even those that are decades old.
           One of the oldest cold cases in Tennessee occurred in Brownsville, Tennessee in 1940.

           That year Elbert Williams, who had just co-founded a local branch of the NAACP, was ambushed and killed. That notorious lynching has not been solved.
Make a donation here and help CrimeStoppers help the MPD's Cold Case Unit.