Thursday morning, August 14, 2025, officers were sent to a home on the unit block of Balfour Avenue in Claymont's Knollwood community for a welfare check. Inside, they found a person dead under suspicious circumstances. The scene drew detectives from the Criminal Investigations Unit, Major Crimes Squad, and Evidence Detection Squad, who secured the residence and began piecing together what happened.
The victim was later identified as Clifton Bailey, 53, male, of Claymont.
In coordination with the Delaware Office of the Medical Examiner, investigators determined that Clifton Bailey, 53, had suffered a gunshot wound to his upper extremity, and his death was officially ruled a homicide. The identification and cause-of-death ruling shifted the case from a mysterious death behind a closed door to a targeted violent crime that left a family and neighborhood searching for answers.
As news of the case filtered out, authorities confirmed that Clifton Bailey, 53, male, died in Claymont on August 14, 2025, and they appealed to the public for information that might illuminate what unfolded in that quiet house on Balfour Avenue. Detectives asked anyone with tips to contact Detective Daniel Elwood at 302-395-2761 or the New Castle County Division of Police non-emergency number at 302-573-2800.
No arrests had been announced and no suspect information had been released in the days following the homicide; police updates indicated that the investigation was active and ongoing. Residents' questions about the silence were answered only by the brief official release: the death of Clifton Bailey, 53, male, had been ruled a homicide, and investigators were still working the case.
