Maurice Antwon Willis was 39 years old when he was killed in St. Louis on Thursday, May 5, 2011. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated his death. 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 full name, his age and the date of his death, almost nothing about Maurice Willis has been made public. No news story about his killing, obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account, and the search that was run for this review turned up nothing beyond the database record itself. 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 the attacker, what time of day it happened, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. It does not say whether anyone else was hurt or whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
One detail in the database stands out. The record for another victim, Mark Petty, 40, gives the same date, May 5, 2011, and exactly the same map coordinates as the record for Maurice Willis. The public record does not explain this. It does not say whether the two men were killed in the same incident, whether they knew each other, or whether their deaths were simply recorded at the same place. Someone who was in the area that day may know.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in far north St. Louis, near the Baden and Walnut Park neighborhoods, a residential area of small homes not far from the city's northern edge. Darral D. Lawson was shot on his front porch on Newby Street, a short distance to the east, just one week earlier, and Zachary Simmons was killed nearby in June 2011. People who lived in that area in the spring of 2011 may remember the police activity that followed.
His age also stands out. At 39, Maurice Willis was older than most of the young men killed in St. Louis in those years, and a man of that age would likely have had a settled circle of family, coworkers and neighbors who noticed when something was wrong and who may have heard what happened.
St. Louis has long had one of the highest homicide rates of any large American city. The city recorded more than 100 homicides in every year of the early 2010s, and the yearly totals later climbed to 188 in 2015 and 205 in 2017. In many of those years, fewer than half of the city's killings ended in an arrest. Cases with few public details, like his, often faded from view quickly.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Maurice Antwon Willis 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 Maurice Willis or Mark Petty, who saw either man on or before May 5, 2011, or who heard talk afterward about 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 call CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS (866-371-8477), where tips can be anonymous.
