On the morning of February 4, 2021, officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department responded to a call reporting shots fired in the Dutchtown neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Upon arriving at a residence in the 4100 block of South Grand Boulevard around 7:00 a.m., they discovered a horrific scene inside the home. Kanisha Hemphill, a 30-year-old female, was found deceased along with her two young daughters, eight-year-old Journee and one-year-old Ja’kari.
All three victims had suffered fatal gunshot wounds.
Investigators quickly identified a suspect, Ronald S. Marr, who was Hemphill's ex-boyfriend and the father of her youngest child. Reports indicated that Hemphill had recently served Marr with paternity paperwork. Following the shooting, authorities determined that Marr had discarded his cell phone, purchased a replacement, and bought a Greyhound bus ticket in an attempt to flee the state. A day after the murders, he was apprehended by law enforcement in Effingham, Illinois, located approximately 100 miles east of St. Louis. Records showed that police had been called to the residence for domestic disturbances twice in the days leading up to the killings.
The legal proceedings against Marr concluded three years later. In February 2024, a jury found him guilty on three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of armed criminal action. During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence of the gruesome nature of the crime, which St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore described as a 'cold-blooded killing.' On March 8, 2024, a judge sentenced Marr to three consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 45 years, ensuring he would remain incarcerated for the rest of his life.
