Aaron Michael Marr, a 37-year-old White man, was fatally stabbed inside his apartment at 210 South Second Street in Ames, Iowa, on the night of September 22, 2007. At approximately 9:53 p.m., the Ames Police Department received a request to assist an ambulance crew responding to a man with a serious cut to his neck. When officers and emergency personnel arrived, Marr was still conscious and had managed to come to the door despite suffering multiple stab wounds to his neck and back.
In the final moments before he was taken from the apartment, Marr revealed that he knew the identity of the person who had attacked him. However, he refused to provide a name or any other identifying information. According to accounts of the response, Marr told one emergency worker, "I'll never tell." He was placed in an ambulance and rushed toward Mary Greeley Medical Center, but his injuries proved fatal, and he died before reaching the hospital. He had celebrated his birthday only three days earlier.
Investigators found evidence inside the apartment that led them to consider whether the killing was connected to illegal drugs. Small bags of marijuana were reportedly discovered in a bedroom, while a white powdery substance believed to be cocaine was found on the back of a toilet. Detectives began reconstructing the events that took place before Marr was stabbed, focusing on his telephone activity, the people expected at the apartment and statements made by his roommate, Steven Cross.
Cross told investigators that he had been asleep in the apartment when he heard someone enter. After hearing what sounded like a struggle, he went into Marr's bedroom and found that Marr had been attacked and beaten. Cross said he did not see the assailant and could not provide a description. He later told police that he and Marr had used a cellular telephone earlier that day to arrange the purchase of crack cocaine. Cross reportedly overheard part of the conversation and understood that someone known as "P.J." was supposed to arrive at approximately 9 p.m. to make the delivery. He also said the same person had been at the residence earlier that day in connection with the proposed purchase.
Cross identified Ralph W. Ellis, who was also known as "P.J." and "P-Rock," from a photograph. When investigators examined Marr's telephone, they found a call involving a number stored under the name "P-Rock." Marr had also spoken with a woman named Christine Cornwell at approximately 9:30 p.m. Cornwell told investigators that she ended their conversation because someone had arrived at Marr's apartment. Both Cornwell and one of Marr's neighbors reportedly identified Ellis from a photograph.
Police questioned Ellis about the calls and the events surrounding the killing. Ellis said the telephone number associated with "P-Rock" belonged to his girlfriend, Shirina Hayes, who was out of town at the time. Although he acknowledged that he had possessed her telephone for approximately a week, he denied having communicated or met with Marr during the week preceding the homicide. Ellis said he had spent much of the day with Terrance Jenkins, including visiting the Lincoln Center Hy-Vee and riding a CyRide bus.
Investigators obtained surveillance recordings that confirmed Ellis and Jenkins were together at the Hy-Vee at approximately 7:40 p.m. and were seen boarding a bus at about 10:08 p.m. Those sightings did not account for the entire period surrounding the attack, which appears to have occurred after Marr ended his telephone conversation around 9:30 p.m. and before emergency assistance was requested at 9:53 p.m. Police secured a search warrant and collected Ellis's cellular telephone, along with clothing and shoes belonging to both Ellis and Jenkins. Publicly available accounts do not indicate that the evidence recovered during those searches was sufficient to file charges in Marr's death.
Neither Ellis nor Jenkins was arrested or prosecuted for Marr's murder. The two men were later arrested in connection with an unrelated Ames carjacking that occurred the month after the stabbing. Both eventually accepted plea agreements and received 10-year prison sentences in 2009 for their involvement in that separate crime. Those convictions did not resolve the investigation into Marr's death, and authorities did not publicly identify either man as the person responsible for the stabbing.
The investigation eventually stalled without an arrest, indictment, trial or conviction. Although Ellis became a significant focus of the inquiry because of witness identifications, telephone records and the planned drug transaction, law enforcement did not announce that it had developed enough evidence to formally charge him or anyone else. Marr's declaration that he knew his attacker remained one of the case's most haunting details, because he died without explaining whom he was protecting or why he chose not to reveal the name.
Ames police have continued to classify the homicide as an open, unsolved case and have periodically reviewed the available evidence. A $2,000 reward was offered for information leading to an arrest. The passage of time has left investigators dependent on previously undisclosed evidence, advances in forensic testing or someone with knowledge of the attack finally coming forward. Aaron Marr's killer has never been brought to trial, and no conviction has been obtained for the violence that ended his life inside his Ames apartment.
