St. Louis Unsolved Homicides

This multi-part investigation by St. Louis Public Radio, APM Reports, and The Marshall Project explores how police in St. Louis — one of America's deadliest cities — have struggled to solve killings, leaving thousands of family members without answers.

June 10, 2024

5 takeaways from our series on St. Louis homicide investigations

The police department has struggled to solve homicides, partly due to shoddy detective work, staffing shortages and eroding community trust.

June 7, 2024

St. Louis homicide cases often go unsolved. Victims’ families want justice.

These St. Louis families have waited years for answers. They say police seem to have forgotten their loved ones.

June 6, 2024

As murders increased, St. Louis police struggled for resources to solve cases

The city’s homicide unit has dealt with short staffing, long hours and a ballooning DNA backlog.

June 5, 2024

Some St. Louis detectives may have botched homicide investigations

Several officers in the homicide unit faced internal complaints that they slept on the job, failed to get key evidence and lied to superiors.

June 4, 2024

In St. Louis, a racial disparity in whose killings get solved

In the past decade, police solved fewer than half of the homicide cases with Black victims and two-thirds of the cases with white ones.

June 3, 2024

How we reported on homicide investigations in St. Louis

Getting and interpreting homicide clearance data involved litigation, complex analysis and patience.

June 3, 2024

Why 1,000 homicides in St. Louis remain unsolved

In one of America's deadliest cities, police have struggled to solve killings due to staffing shortages, shoddy detective work and lack of community trust.

July 17, 2023

St. Louis police data: Nearly 60% of homicides committed since 2017 are unsolved

Newly released data reveals no resolution for the families of hundreds of homicide victims. Police refused to release homicide clearance data, so we sued to find out.

March 31, 2022

St. Louis' murder total has fallen, but some killings went uncounted

St. Louis officials are celebrating a big drop in murders while the city’s police classify more and more killings as “justifiable homicides” instead.

November 22, 2021

St. Louis cops are hiding key details about homicide cases from the public

Despite killings on the rise and the highest homicide rate among big cities, St. Louis police say they don’t have to tell the public which cases have been solved. APM Reports has filed a lawsuit for the information.