Wesley Hemphill was 43 years old when he was killed in St. Louis on Wednesday, January 31, 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 Wesley Hemphill 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.
Wesley Hemphill'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.
At 43, Wesley Hemphill was older than most St. Louis homicide victims of that era, who were overwhelmingly young men. He died on a Wednesday at the end of January, in the depth of a St. Louis winter.
Searches for his name turn up court records, listings and family histories involving other men named Wesley Hemphill, several of them dated years after 2007. None of them concern the man who died in St. Louis in January 2007.
The location recorded in the database places his death in north St. Louis, a few miles northwest of downtown, in an area of older homes and small businesses. People who lived there in the winter of 2007 may remember the police activity that followed.
The killing came during a violent stretch for St. Louis, which has for years had one of the highest homicide rates of any large American city. The city recorded 138 homicides in 2007 and 167 in 2008, with roughly 350,000 residents, and a large share of those cases ended without anyone being charged. Killings that drew little press coverage were especially likely to fade from public memory.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Wesley Hemphill 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 Wesley Hemphill, saw him in the last days of 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).
