Ronald Ledell Fortune was 44 years old when he was killed in St. Louis on Tuesday, June 26, 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.
No news report describing how Ronald Fortune 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 he knew his attacker, whether anyone else was hurt, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
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 obituary published in August 2025 appears to refer to him.
It is for Vera Fortune, who was born in 1951 and died in 2025 in the Rockford, Illinois, area. It says she was preceded in death by her parents, her only sister, Rosalind, and her firstborn son, Ronald LeDell Fortune Sr. The name, with its distinctive middle name, and the ages fit the man killed in St. Louis, though the obituary does not say how or where her son died. If it is him, his mother lived for 13 more years without seeing anyone held responsible.
The "Sr." in that obituary also indicates that Ronald Fortune had a son named after him. A father of 44 would likely have had children, siblings and friends who remember him and who may have heard what happened.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in north St. Louis, west of Kingshighway Boulevard, a residential part of the city several miles northwest of downtown, with blocks of brick homes and flats. People who lived in that area in late June 2012 may remember Ronald Fortune, 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 Ronald Ledell Fortune 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 Ronald Fortune, who saw him in the days before June 26, 2012, or who heard talk afterward about what happened to him, may be able to help his 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.
