Do you know who murdered Charles Bunch? On a Sunday night in October of 2007, the life of 18-year-old Charles Bunch, an African-American male, was cut short on a street in Boston's Mattapan neighborhood. It was approximately 10:49 p.m. on October 14th when police responded to a call for shots fired on Orlando Street. Upon their arrival, they discovered Bunch lying in the middle of the street, having sustained multiple gunshot wounds. He was rushed to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
The Boston Police Department immediately launched a homicide investigation into the shooting of the teenager.
In the days that followed, a complex and tragic backstory to Bunch's death emerged. Just ten days prior to his own murder, on October 4, 2007, Bunch had been identified by the Suffolk County District Attorney's office as the individual responsible for the shooting death of 13-year-old Steven Odom. Odom was an innocent bystander who was killed in a case of mistaken identity. Bunch was never formally charged in Odom's death, as he himself was killed before he could be brought to justice.
Despite the connection between the two killings, law enforcement officials stated that they had no evidence to suggest that Bunch's murder was an act of retaliation for the death of Steven Odom. The investigation into who shot and killed Charles Bunch was described as active and ongoing. Authorities publicly appealed for any information that could lead to the identification and apprehension of a suspect or suspects.
However, as time passed, the case grew cold. While a man named David Johnson was indicted and later pleaded guilty to providing Bunch with the gun used to kill Steven Odom, there have been no publicly announced arrests or suspects in the murder of Charles Bunch. His death, which compounded the tragedy of the Odom case, remains an unsolved homicide on the streets of Boston.
