Boston police launch website listing 62 years of unsolved homicides, seek public help

For those who have lost a loved one to violence in Boston and still have no answers, the city’s police department has taken a step that could make a difference.

Boston police launched a public webpage to list the city’s unsolved homicide cases back to 1963 — a move the department says is necessary to gain information for grieving families seeking transparency on the city’s 1,800 unsolved cases.

“We certainly want the loved ones of these victims to know that we remember them, but this is not a memorial, it is seeking information. These are cases that we need assistance solving,” said Sgt. Det. Nick Moore, a member of the department’s homicide unit who helped work on the site.

“Everyone listed on these unsolved pages had a life that existed before this trauma happened to them. They have loved ones who want to know what happened to them,” Moore said.

Unsolved murders in Boston from the past 62 years are now shown by year on the homepage of the Homicide Unit section on police.boston.gov.

The listings, which were compiled from the department’s existing records, include the cases from this year of 18-year-old Leroy Ryner killed on Jan. 30, and 20-year-old Kareem Daveiga-Booth killed nine days earlier.

But the dashboard stretches back to the case of James Smith, 32, who was shot at 29 Wyoming St. in 1963 — the first case listed on the page.

Each person’s entry includes their name, age, and the date, location and manner of death, with statements confirming their deaths as homicides as ruled by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

“We work with family members who lost a loved one to violence 50 years ago. I have seen them shocked that they break down when they talk about their loved one,” Moore said. “The person who was killed, and the pain of their loss is always with the survivors and we want to try to at least solve these cases.”

The new unsolved homicides section is now live, though it remains a work in progress — part of a broader website redesign to improve public access that began after Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox was appointed in 2022.

“We need the public’s help finding those who are responsible for taking these individuals’ lives and we want the public to know that we are asking for their help,” said Mariellen Burns, chief of Boston police communications.

“Each individual whose life was taken, is someone’s son, daughter, sister, brother … and they have loved ones who still grieve their loss,” Burns said, adding that “this may be a small piece” in helping detectives close cases.

Family members and loved ones are asked to submit photos of victims to unsolved@pd.boston.gov. The section can be accessed on the main page of BPDnews.com by clicking on “homicide” and scrolling to “unsolved,” or through BPDnews.com/unsolved.

A survivor’s reaction

“We are glad to see it happening … it’s really long overdue,” President and CEO of the Luis D. Brown Peace Institute Clementina Chéry said. Chéry lost her own son, Louis D. Brown, to gun violence three decades ago and has since made it her mission to support other survivors.

“We want to work with [The Boston Police Department], to really come and present this website to the community, engage with the community, so that the community is aware that this exists,” Chéry said.

While Chéry said the dashboard collection may be “re-traumatizing” to survivors, she plans to host her own community meetings to guide and support homicide victims’ loved ones how to use it.

The dashboard comes after recommendations from the Peace Institute in a report titled “Unsolved But Not Forgotten,” published in March in partnership with Northeastern University. Chéry called the report a “second Bible” in her advocacy work.

Though the Boston police homicide arrest rate matches the national average of 50%, the report highlighted frustration among the city’s survivors with communication about their loved ones’ cases as police continue investigations, based on narrative interviews. While the report made several suggestions to the department, including the creation of a “complete database” of unsolved homicides, the development of the database isn’t explicitly linked to the report’s recommendations.

Northeastern professor Andrew Haile, who led the study with his law students, discovered the new unsolved homicides dashboard while searching the Boston police website out of curiosity and said it’s “a start.”

“I’m grateful for progress and I’m glad that it seems like a big improvement,” Haile said.

The capability for survivors and people with information to connect with the department through the site is a major highlight for Haile. He’d like to see the dashboard become even more user-friendly as the department continues to form it, especially for possible witnesses with more prominent links and clear, step-by-step instructions and assurances for tipsters.

As the city takes this public step forward, Chéry wants to make sure the stories of survivors don’t get lost under the flash-bang that is data.

“These are people. These are individuals. These are stories behind each victim … Yes, we celebrate that homicide is down,” she said, referencing last year’s record-low rates as an example of how data alone does not tell a survivor’s whole story, “and we need to work even harder.”

“At the same time, we want to remind people of the trauma and the stigma and the pain and the shame,” Chéry said.