Daniel Lee Atkins was killed in St. Louis on Tuesday, May 8, 2012. The Washington Post's database lists his age as 35; an obituary published a week later gives it as 36. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated his death, and the Post's database, which tracked killings in St. Louis through 2017, lists it as a homicide that remained open with no arrest.
No news report describing how Daniel Atkins was killed could be found for this account. The public record does not say how he died, what time it happened, whether he was attacked indoors or on the street, whether anyone else was hurt, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital.
No suspect description, vehicle, person of interest or motive has been made public, and no reward for information about his death appears in the available record.
An online case listing on CrimeTea, a site that catalogs unsolved killings, lists Daniel Lee Atkins as a murder victim and the case as active.
His obituaries give a glimpse of the people he left behind. A notice from Serenity Memorial Chapel says Mr. Daniel Lee Atkins was survived by his wife, Catherine Atkins of St. Louis; his father, James Atkins of St. Louis; and a sister, Sherry, and her husband, Kevin, along with other relatives. A death notice published in the Belleville News-Democrat on May 16, 2012, said he was 36, of St. Louis, and died on May 8. It set a visitation from 10 to 11 a.m. on Friday, May 18, at the funeral home, followed by the funeral at 11.
He was a married man, and his wife, his father and his sister all lived with the loss. Family members who knew where he had been and whom he had been with in the days before May 8, 2012, may hold details that never reached the public.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death just north of downtown St. Louis, near the Mississippi riverfront, an area of warehouses, industrial sites, public housing and older homes. Workers, drivers and residents pass through that area at all hours, and people who were there in early May 2012 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 Daniel Lee Atkins 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 Daniel Atkins, who worked or spent time with him near downtown, or who heard talk afterward about what happened to him, may be able to help his wife and family get answers. 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.
