On a cold February morning in 2016, the life of Emma Wallace, a 37-year-old Black female, was tragically cut short in a burst of gunfire on a Missouri highway. Just before 2 a.m. on February 21st, Wallace was the front seat passenger in a Jeep traveling eastbound on Interstate 270 near North Lindbergh Boulevard in Hazelwood. It was then that a black Mercedes pulled alongside them, and occupants within the Mercedes opened fire on the Jeep.
Wallace was fatally wounded, and two other men and another woman in the Jeep sustained serious injuries.
Investigators from the Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis quickly determined that this was not a random act of violence. They believed the shooting was the culmination of a year-long dispute between individuals, and that another passenger in the Jeep was the intended target. The family of Emma Wallace, a hairdresser and mother of two boys, expressed their anguish, believing that the driver of the Jeep, who was the intended target, could have done more to save her life after she was shot. The suspects had reportedly seen the intended target at a bar earlier that night and followed the Jeep. The black Mercedes used in the commission of the crime was later found to have been stolen during a carjacking in Sauget, Illinois, and was recovered by police on Target Drive in north St. Louis County.
Within days of the shooting, authorities made significant headway in the case. On February 26, 2016, the Major Case Squad announced the arrests of three men in connection with the murder of Emma Wallace. Those taken into custody were 21-year-old Tony Terron Bailey, 24-year-old Jerrod Corley, and 20-year-old Larry Coleman. A fourth suspect, John Howard Stith, was also identified and sought by police. The charges brought against the men were severe, including first-degree murder for Corley and Coleman, and second-degree murder for Bailey and Stith. All four men also faced numerous counts of armed criminal action, assault, and shooting from a motor vehicle. The Hazelwood Police Chief characterized the suspects as being on a crime spree that spanned from Missouri to Illinois. The family of Emma Wallace found some solace in the arrests, believing it would help her two sons, who were 11 and 16 at the time, to better cope with the tragic loss of their mother.
