Charles Domunic Bryant was 38 years old when he was killed in St. Louis on Friday, July 1, 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 Charles Bryant has been made public. No news story about the killing, obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account, and the search 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.
His middle name is recorded as "Domunic," an unusual spelling of Dominic. It may be the way his family spelled it, or it may be a spelling error in the record. Either way, it matters for anyone trying to find him: an obituary, court file or memorial page might list him as Charles Dominic Bryant, Charles D. Bryant or simply Charles Bryant, a common name that turns up many other men.
The timing also stands out. He was killed on the Friday that began the long Fourth of July holiday weekend in 2011, a time when many people are outside, at cookouts and on porches in the summer heat, and when neighbors are more likely than usual to have been around to see or hear something.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in north St. Louis, a few miles northwest of downtown, a part of the city with long blocks of brick homes and flats, many of them vacant, alongside churches and corner businesses. People who lived in that area in early July 2011 may remember Charles Bryant, and may remember the police activity that followed his death.
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 Charles Domunic Bryant 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 Charles Bryant, who saw him in the days before the Fourth of July weekend in 2011, or who heard talk afterward about 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 call CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS (866-371-8477), where tips can be anonymous.
