Damonte Yancy Simmons was 20 years old when he was killed in St. Louis on Tuesday, February 28, 2012. 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 Damonte Simmons 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 age stands out. At 20, he was barely an adult, and young men his age were the people most often killed in St. Louis in those years. Someone so young would likely have had parents, brothers or sisters, former classmates and close friends, people who noticed right away when something was wrong and who may have heard talk about what happened.
His name is also distinctive. Damonte is an uncommon first name and Yancy an uncommon middle name, so anyone who knew him would likely recognize it, even though searches for the surname Simmons turn up many unrelated people.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in south St. Louis, in the Dutchtown area, a dense neighborhood of brick homes, two-family flats and corner storefronts several miles south of downtown. A killing there on a winter weeknight would have drawn police cars and attention from people on the block. Those who lived in that area in late February 2012 may remember Damonte, 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 Damonte Yancy Simmons could be found in news archives or public records. More than 14 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Damonte Simmons, who went to school with him, saw him in the days before he died, or 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.
