In the early hours of July 6, 2016, the life of Matthew Spooner, a 35-year-old Caucasian male from Picayune, Mississippi, was cut short in New Orleans. At approximately 1:12 a.m., officers from the New Orleans Police Department responded to a call of a shooting in the 2100 block of North Miro Street. Upon arrival, they discovered Spooner unconscious, having sustained a gunshot wound to the head.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation into Spooner's death soon became intertwined with another mysterious death. A few days later, the heavily decomposed body of 35-year-old Jeremy Paul Fountain, also with ties to the Picayune area, was discovered in a wooded area in Waveland, Mississippi. The Waveland Police Department confirmed they were working with the New Orleans Police Department's Homicide Division, stating that Fountain's death was related to the homicide of Matthew Spooner. The nature of this connection, however, was not publicly detailed by law enforcement officials, who remained tight-lipped about the ongoing investigation.
At the time of his death, it was reported that Spooner had recently distanced himself from the Simon City Royals gang. His intention was to establish a new group called the Sip City Royals, which was aimed at promoting charity and community building. The New Orleans Police Department's investigation into his murder was led by Detective Robert Barrere, who, in the initial days following the incident, declined to comment on the active case.
In the years that have followed, there has been a lack of publicly available information regarding any arrests or the identification of any suspects in the murder of Matthew Spooner. The case remains a somber mystery, leaving family and community members without answers or a sense of justice for his violent death. The official investigation has not yielded any publicly announced breakthroughs, and the circumstances surrounding his and Jeremy Paul Fountain's deaths remain unresolved.
