On a cold December evening in Detroit, Michigan, a promising young life was tragically cut short. Sixteen-year-old Paige Stalker, a high school student from Grosse Pointe Farms, was fatally shot on December 22, 2014. She was a passenger in a parked car with four other teenagers on the city's east side, just a few blocks from the Detroit-Grosse Pointe Park border, when the violent encounter unfolded.
That night, as the group of friends sat in a silver Mercury Milan, a tan Cadillac
reportedly pulled up alongside them. A man emerged from the passenger side of the Cadillac and, without warning, opened fire on the vehicle. A barrage of approximately 30 bullets was fired into the car. Paige was struck in the head and killed. Three other teens in the car, a 16-year-old girl, a 15-year-old boy, and a 16-year-old boy, also sustained gunshot wounds but survived. One of the uninjured teens heroically drove the group to a nearby hospital in Grosse Pointe.
The investigation into Paige's murder was immediately hampered by conflicting accounts from the surviving teenagers about why they were in that particular neighborhood. Initially, police suspected the shooting may have been the result of a drug deal gone wrong, but later considered robbery or carjacking as possible motives. Investigators believe the attack was not random and that the gunman likely knew at least one of the individuals in the car. The shooter was described as a Black male, approximately six feet tall, wearing army fatigues, a black hat, and possibly a bulletproof vest.
Despite a substantial reward offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction, which grew to over $150,000, the case remains unsolved. No arrests have ever been made in connection with the murder of Paige Stalker, and her killer remains at large. The community continues to mourn the loss of the vibrant teenager, a standout student at University Liggett School, whose future was stolen in a senseless act of violence.
