It was about 5:30 on a quiet Sunday morning, October 3, 2021 when several individuals wearing hoodies forced their way into a home on McLean Boulevard in midtown Memphis where five people were sleeping. The burglary quickly turned into aggravated robbery and then murder.
Before the home invaders fled, Andrew Talbot Rainer, Jr., known to family and friends as Drew, was shot and killed and a second victim was wounded.
Rainer was a senior at nearby Rhodes College.
Two days later, U.S. Marshals arrested a suspect — Rainess Holmes, 36 — and charged him with first degree murder, aggravated robbery and murder while committing a burglary. Holmes was on probation at the time for aggravated burglary and theft. His record includes several other felony convictions.
As least three other individuals who participated in the home invasion remain at large and detectives have not been able to identify them.
Although “one arrest has been made relative to this homicide,” said Major Webb Kirkdoffer of the Memphis Police Department’s Homicide Bureau, “investigators still need the public’s help identifying additional individuals who are responsible for Rainer’s murder.”
To help police bring more attackers to justice, CrimeStoppers has announced a special $5,000 cash award to anyone who will provide information leading to one or more arrests in the case. All calls to 528-CASH are anonymous. The amount includes the $2,000 CrimeStoppers pays in murder cases, plus $3,000 posted by the Rainer family.
“We’re sure the perpetrators in this case are known to some people in the community,” said E. Winslow (Buddy) Chapman, executive director of CrimeStoppers. “We just need some folks to do the right thing and tell us what they know or have heard about this case.”
Drew Rainer, 22 years old, was a Clarence Day Scholar. He majored in English and was working toward a minor degree in music. He was a member of the Rhodes Jazz Ensemble and a chaplain at his fraternity.
