Demetrius Williams was 15 years old when he was killed in St. Louis on Friday, May 25, 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 Demetrius Williams 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.
Demetrius Williams'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.
Demetrius Williams was only 15, a high school age boy, and one of the youngest people killed in St. Louis that year. He died on a Friday at the start of the Memorial Day weekend, when school was nearly out for the summer. Classmates, teachers, coaches and neighbors would have known him.
Demetrius Williams is a common name, and searches are dominated by other men who share it, including athletes and men charged with crimes in other states. None of those records concern the boy who died in St. Louis in 2007.
The location recorded in the database places his death in north St. Louis, east of Fairground Park, in a residential area of older homes. People who lived there in May 2007 may remember Demetrius, and the police activity that followed his death.
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 Demetrius Williams 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 went to school with Demetrius Williams, knew his friends, or heard talk afterward of what happened to him may be able to help. People who were teenagers then are now adults, and some may feel able to speak now. 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).
