Charles Walker was 32 years old when he was killed in St. Louis on Sunday, January 7, 2007. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated his death, and the Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in St. Louis through 2017, lists it as a homicide that remained open with no arrest.
Beyond his name, his age and the date of his death, almost nothing about Charles Walker has been made public. No news story about the killing, obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account. He surely had family, friends and neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public.
The record does not say how he was killed, whether he was attacked indoors or on the street, whether he knew his attacker, what time of day it happened, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, or whether anyone else was hurt. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect or a motive.
Charles Walker's name also appears in a 2018 Washington Post investigation that listed thousands of homicide victims across major American cities whose killings had not led to an arrest. Being on that list means that, a decade after his death, the case was still counted among those for which no one had been arrested.
He was 32 and died on a Sunday in the first full week of January, only days after the holidays. A man of that age would likely have had family, friends or co-workers who knew where he was spending his time.
Charles Walker is a very common name. Searches are dominated by other men who share it, including an Illinois man executed in 1990 for a 1983 killing and many unrelated obituaries and arrest notices. None of those records concern the Charles Walker who died in St. Louis in 2007, and the confusion may help explain why his story has been so hard to follow.
The location recorded in the database places his death in the northwest part of the city, near Goodfellow Boulevard, an area of brick homes, corner stores and churches. People who lived there in early January 2007 may remember the police activity that followed.
St. Louis was, and remains, one of the most violent large cities in the United States. Police counted 138 homicides in the city in 2007 and 167 in 2008, in a city of roughly 350,000 people, and many of those cases were never solved. With so many killings each year, the ones that received no news coverage could slip out of public view within weeks.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Charles Walker could be found in news archives or public records. More than 19 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Charles Walker, saw him in early January 2007, or heard talk afterward of what happened to him may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Division at 314-444-5371, or leave an anonymous tip with CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS (866-371-8477).
