Do you know who murdered Corey Thompson? On August 13, 2009, Corey Thompson Jr., a 21-year-old Black man from Louisville, Kentucky, was at the CityView Apartments on Place Blanc when his life was abruptly cut short. In the early morning hours, police were called to the complex and found him suffering from multiple gunshot wounds; despite efforts to save him, he died from his injuries.
News accounts later described how his mother, Christy Verner, raced down Chestnut Street toward the apartment complex after learning her son had
been shot. When she arrived, the area was already sealed off with police tape, officers working behind the barrier while she waited in agonizing uncertainty. Hours passed before she was allowed close enough to see that it was indeed her son lying on the ground, her memory seared by the image of what she described as “red tears” on his face as he lay where he had fallen.
Investigators said that when they first responded to the scene, they found no witnesses willing or able to explain what had happened. It was unclear to them why Corey had been at that particular apartment, and detectives were left without the basic leads that often guide the early stages of a homicide investigation. The lack of firsthand accounts meant there were no immediate descriptions of a shooter, no vehicle to look for, and no clear motive to pursue, leaving the case to hinge on physical evidence and whatever information might eventually come in through tips.
As the years passed, the case remained open but unsolved. By 2018, nearly nine years after the shooting, local coverage noted that no one had been charged in connection with Corey’s death. Police still had not identified a suspect publicly, and there were no reports of arrests, indictments, or trials tied to the killing. His mother continued to speak out, saying she might never know who killed her son in this life and would have to wait until Judgment Day for the answers that had eluded her for so long.
Corey left behind four children, whose lives moved forward without the father who had been taken from them in an instant. Each anniversary of the shooting and each news segment that revisited the case served as a reminder that the person or people responsible for his death were still unknown. Louisville Metro Police have kept the homicide listed among their unresolved cases, periodically renewing appeals for anyone with information to come forward so that, after all these years, Corey’s family might finally see someone held accountable for what happened at CityView Apartments that August morning.
