Ivory “Pops” Hawkins, 63, a Black man, vanished from Las Vegas on April 10, 2015, the same day police responded to his residence after reports of gunfire. Inside, officers found 28-year-old Derek Cooper Jr. shot to death; detectives announced they wanted to locate Hawkins for questioning about what had happened that night. In the days that followed, local news carried his name as a person detectives urgently hoped to interview, even as the shock of the shooting rippled through the
neighborhood.
Weeks later, on May 22, authorities in Iron County, Utah, were led to a decomposing body just south of the tiny community of Summit, off the I-15 corridor that funnels traffic between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. A bone from the remains—a femur—was routed to Las Vegas to aid investigators. The Utah State Medical Examiner confirmed the body as that of Ivory “Pops” Hawkins, closing the question of his disappearance but opening a more troubling one about how he died and who helped move his body across state lines.
Court records and contemporaneous reporting describe how detectives, already immersed in the April 10 homicide at Hawkins' home, began probing potential links between Hawkins' death and people tied to the earlier shooting. In late April, police arrested Jacktorian Harvey on unrelated drug-trafficking counts after finding cocaine and crack-making equipment; affidavits referenced by reporters noted witness statements—characterized as coming from heavy narcotics users—alleging Harvey shot Cooper. Investigators examined whether the remains found in Utah might connect to that April crime scene and to Harvey, who by then was in custody on the drug case. The tantalizing overlap of dates, places, and names drove speculation, but detectives kept much of their theory work sealed within warrants and reports.
Despite those leads, authorities did not announce an arrest specifically for Hawkins' killing in the months that followed the discovery of his body. News coverage focused on the identification of his remains, the unanswered questions about the journey to Summit, and the unresolved thread connecting his last known moments in Las Vegas to the grim find along a Utah frontage road. As the investigation continued, the portrait that emerged was of a man who stepped out of view amid the chaos of a shooting at his own home, only to be found far from the city he called home, his death a lingering mystery awaiting resolution.
