Cape police chief: Most homicides solved

While a local community group has focused on getting justice for homicide victims and their families on Cape Girardeau’s south side, police chief Wes Blair said the city has a good track record for solving such violent crimes.

George E. Robinson

“If you include arsons, dog maulings and other manners of homicide, the total count since 2000 is 43, with seven remaining unsolved,” Blair said.

“That puts our clearance rate at 84 percent,” he said.

Joshua E. Diebert

That’s far better than the national average, which is around 60 percent, Blair said.

In some of the nation’s larger cities, the clearance rate is in the upper 20 percent or lower 30 percent range, he said.

Zatrun Twiggs

From 2000 to 2018 in Cape Girardeau, 36 homicide victims died from gunshots, Blair said.

Four cases, involving a total of five victims, remain unsolved, Blair said recently.

Detavian Richardson

Just how many homicides remain unsolved is a matter of debate.

A south-side Cape Girardeau organization, Stop Needless Acts of Violence Please (SNAP), has a more expansive view of unsolved cases than the seven listed by Blair.

Travis S. Scales

Felice Patton, who directs the group, listed 10 homicides since 2008 as unsolved. But that list included the 2015 shooting death of Howard Harris Smith Jr., a case Blair recently revealed has been solved even though the suspected shooter was never charged with murder.

Also on Patton’s list are the shooting death of a Cape Girardeau man in St. Louis and a Cairo, Illinois, man who was shot on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge.

Demetric L. Atchison

Patton said SNAP believes the shooting of Travis Scales in St. Louis on Feb. 9, 2017, had its origins in Cape Girardeau.

But Cape Girardeau police view it as a St. Louis case.

Lavell Durden

As for the bridge shooting, police have said the Illinois State Police are leading the investigation, which so far has not resulted in an arrest.

Still, that doesn’t keep Patton from listing the case as an unsolved Cape Girardeau homicide.

Jimmy L. Walker

Excluding the Smith case, the unsolved homicides listed by SNAP are:

Dalvin R. Taylor

• George E. Robinson, 42, arson, 4/29/2008, at his home at 203 S. Pacific St.
• Joshua E. Diebert, 34, gunshot, 6/20/2014, in a vehicle at 1121 Good Hope St.
• Zatrun Twiggs, 28, and Detavian Richardson, 20, gunshots, 8/3/2014, on street, 236 S. Middle St.
• Travis S. Scales, 35, gunshots, 2/9/2017, in St. Louis, lived in Cape Girardeau
• Demetric L. Atchison, 41, gunshot, 5/11/2017, 41 N. Henderson Ave.
• Lavell Durden, 49, stabbed, 7/19/2017, in his apartment, 203 S. Lorimier St.
• Jimmy L. Walker, 22, gunshot, 8/26/17, 546 S. Sprigg St.
• Dalvin R. Taylor, 26, gunshot, 10/7/2018, Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge

mbliss@semissourian.com

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