On the night of May 3, 2015, the quiet of a North St. Louis neighborhood was shattered by the sound of gunfire, leaving a tragic scene in its wake. Officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department responded to a call reporting a shooting around midnight near the 3000 block of North Vandeventer Avenue. Upon arrival, they discovered the lifeless bodies of two young women lying in a vacant lot.
The initial investigation revealed that both victims had sustained fatal gunshot wounds, and they were pronounced dead at the scene by first responders who could do nothing to save them.
The victims were soon identified as sisters who lived in the area, 20-year-old Antquonette Hale and her younger sibling, 15-year-old Tahnaizja Smith. Antquonette was a female resident of St. Louis who had been out with her teenage sister when the violence occurred. According to local news reports and autopsy findings, the brutality of the attack was evident; Antquonette had been shot in the back, while Tahnaizja suffered multiple gunshot wounds to her face, arm, and chest. The sisters were found together in the empty field, their lives cut short in an instant, leaving investigators to piece together the events that led them to that desolate location.
Despite the immediate launch of a homicide investigation, police struggled to find witnesses who saw the actual shooting, though neighbors reported hearing the shots fired. In the days following the murders, the sisters' grandmother spoke to the media, suggesting that while the girls were not trouble-makers, they may have been 'hanging out with the wrong crowd.' The family was left to grieve the sudden loss of two members, remembering them as goodhearted young women with bright futures.
Years have passed since that spring night, yet the case remains unsolved with no arrests made. The St. Louis Regional Crime Stoppers has listed the double homicide among its open cases, seeking any information from the public that could lead to a suspect. To date, no individuals have been charged, tried, or convicted in connection with the deaths of Antquonette Hale and Tahnaizja Smith, leaving their family and the community waiting for justice that has yet to arrive.
