RICHMOND, Va. — Law enforcement agencies across the country have seen dipping success rates in solving the most severe crimes — murder. And while the Richmond Police Department is clearing cases at a higher rate than the national average, a considerable number of homicides remain unsolved.
For family members waiting for justice, the lack of answers can be crippling.
"People think you just get over this. People always said, 'It gets easier with time.' It doesn’t get easier with time," LaVon Whitlow told CBS 6.
Whitlow's world stopped on August 20, 2020, when her 20-year-old son Jamarea Whitlow was shot and killed in the parking lot of his apartment building in the Fairfield neighborhood.
His killing left a dark cloud forever hanging over his family.
“There's no normalcy for us. Every day is a struggle. I can be driving down this road, I would just start crying," Whitlow said. “I want to feel throughout the day like I used to feel when he was here. I want to just hug him one more time. It's a lot that we had, that we could have done. It's so many years taken from him.”
Compounding Whitlow's grief is the fact that Jamarea's killing remains unsolved.
“When you have an open investigation and something has not been done, and you're feeding detectives information and things that you know and can't get a result four years later, I can't get past that," Whitlow said. "How can anybody get past that?”
Whitlow said she's passed along contact information, recorded calls with witnesses, and other evidence to RPD over the years, but she doesn't know to what extent her tips were investigated. Her communications with the detective assigned to the case ceased in 2021, according to texts she showed CBS 6.
Updates from police over the years have been minimal, she said.
“I’ve been through two chiefs, two detectives, in the change of a case time," Whitlow said. “They told me themselves they didn’t have the manpower.”
Simply put, Whitlow feels let down by her public safety agency.
“You guys failed us," she said.
CBS 6 took Whitlow's concerns to Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards.
“She says that she feels failed by the criminal justice system because she has no justice. What would you say to her?” reporter Tyler Layne asked.
“To never give up hope, and if she would like to sit down with me, like many families have, we can talk about issues and see if there may be something we're missing," Edwards answered.
It's not totally uncommon for murders in Richmond to go unsolved.
For example, in 2023, the city saw 63 homicides. During that calendar year, RPD made 28 arrests and cleared five more cases through other means, including by exceptional means. An exceptional clearance means police identified the offender but were unable to make an arrest due to circumstances outside of their control, such as death.
That would make a 52% year-to-date clearance rate, meaning about half of the cases were not cleared during the calendar year.
However, it's important to note that arrests can happen in the years to come, which is why law enforcement agencies use a method called incident-based reporting to track clearance rates.
When RPD takes into account the number of arrests made in 2023 for a homicide that occurred in a previous year, its incident-based reporting clearance rate rises to 60%.
“We just always want to look for ways to increase that clearance rate and to make sure that we hold people accountable," Edwards said.
Under the incident-based reporting system, RPD is clearing homicides at a higher rate than the record-low national average of 54%, but RPD is still below the neighboring localities which deal with significantly fewer homicides.
Henrico Homicides
In 2023, Henrico Police cleared 75% of its 24 homicides.
In 2019, the police division cleared 86% of its seven homicides.
A Henrico Police spokesperson said the county's police division currently has eight full-time detectives who get assigned to homicide cases and there are no vacancies in that unit.
Chesterfield Homicides
Chesterfield Police cleared 100% of its eight homicides last year, no change from five years ago when the department cleared 100% of its 13 homicides.
A Chesterfield Police spokesperson did not disclose the department's number of homicide detectives but said there are no current vacancies.
Richmond's 'Unique Challenge'
The FBI warns against comparing localities' data to measure law enforcement efficacy, citing sociological factors that influence crime, and Edwards pointed out that murders in an urban environment like Richmond present unique challenges.
He said "almost all" of the city's homicides are related to guns.
“What's very difficult to solve is firearm-related murders at a distance, where it's stranger versus stranger, and it's just much more complicated," Edwards said. “The majority of those known motives are not domestics. They're not even drug dealing. They are arguments that escalate often between people who don't have connections with each other."
Under those circumstances, he said detectives don't have a starting point.
Edwards, a former homicide investigator himself, said a case becomes even more difficult when the victim has no ties to the community and potential witnesses are unwilling to come forward.
"I've handed subpoenas to old ladies from Gilpin Court who've had to come to the John Marshall court building and point out killers, and I've always felt bad about that," Edwards said. "I've never liked that part of that, because I know that she's going to go right back to that same neighborhood and be at risk."
Right now, RPD has 13 homicide detectives with experience levels that range from six years to 30 years, according to Edwards.
But he still needs to fill three more positions.
Edwards said the vacancies in one of the department's most critical units does cause him some concern, but he added he has mitigated the impacts of unfilled roles by reallocating resources and staff.
“There's no question about it; we have to have more people. We are short staffed, but we have not cut the homicide unit like we have had to make very difficult cuts in other areas of the department," Edwards said.
The chief points to technology advancements, such as license plate recognition and gunshot detection, as well as crime prevention programming like Operation Safe Summer for an incident-based reporting clearance rate that has improved greatly over a five-year trend.
In 2019, RPD cleared 42% of homicides within that calendar year, with an incident-based reporting clearance rate of 56%.
So far in 2024, RPD has cleared 57% of homicides within the calendar year. However, the department has made six arrests for homicides that occurred in a previous year and made seven exceptional clearances of homicides that occurred in a previous year.
That would bring the incident-based reporting clearance rate to 85% for 2024.
As for Jamarea's case, his mother said the only way forward for her is justice.
“I just want it to where I can get that phone call, ‘Hey, we got the person we're going to court,'" Whitlow said.
"Is it possible that killer could get away with it?" reporter Tyler Layne asked Chief Edwards.
"Well, there are certainly cases that go unsolved forever, and the burden of proof is high," Edwards said. "So, that's definitely possible. I think the goal is, and the hope is, that no stone gets left unturned. That's what I can really promise families."
Arrests make up just one piece of the criminal justice system.
What happens when defendants go to court is another story.
CBS 6 requested data from the Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney's Office about the outcomes of homicide cases and will follow-up on this reporting in the coming weeks.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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