Eric Lawrence Dorsey was 22 years old when he was killed in St. Louis on Saturday, December 11, 2010. 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 Eric Lawrence Dorsey 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, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital.
It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Eric Lawrence Dorsey is also listed on CrimeTea, an online database of unsolved cases, where his death is recorded as an active murder case in St. Louis. The entry repeats the basic record but adds no details about what happened, which suggests that little beyond the police record has ever surfaced.
Eric Lawrence Dorsey'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, years after the killing, the case was still counted among those for which no one had been arrested.
He was 22 and died on a Saturday in mid-December, two weeks before Christmas. A people-search listing records an Eric Lawrence Dorsey of St. Louis as deceased, and other listings name him among the relatives of St. Louis Dorseys, which suggests he had family in the area, though those listings say nothing about his death.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in north St. Louis, a few miles north of downtown, in a residential area of older homes not far from O'Fallon Park. People who lived or worked in that area in December 2010 may remember the police activity that followed his death.
St. Louis was one of the most violent large cities in the United States in those years. The city, home to roughly 320,000 people, recorded 167 homicides in 2008, 143 in 2009 and 144 in 2010, giving it one of the highest per capita homicide rates of any major American city. Most of the victims were young Black men, and many of the killings were never solved. Cases with few public details often faded from view quickly.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Eric Lawrence Dorsey could be found in news archives or public records. More than 15 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Eric Lawrence Dorsey and saw him in the days before he died, or who heard talk afterward of what happened, 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).
