Alexander Murrell was found dead on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009, in a room he rented in the 2400 block of Edmondson Avenue in Baltimore. The Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists his age as 62, while police at the time gave it as 64. He had suffered blunt force injuries. The Baltimore Police Department investigated, and the Sun's database lists his death as a homicide.
The Baltimore Sun reported the death on Dec. 1, 2009, in a story about the end of a violent November.
Police said Murrell "was found about 12:35 p.m. Wednesday in a room he rented in the 2400 block of Edmondson Ave." According to the Sun, his family "said they had not heard from him since Nov. 23, and they had the landlord help them gain entry to his room." Agent Donny Moses, a police spokesman, said Murrell "had suffered head trauma and had been dead for some time." The Sun reported that "police had no suspects or motives in his death."
Those few sentences say something about the man. His relatives kept in touch with him closely enough to notice within two days that he had gone quiet, and they went to his room themselves to check on him. That is the kind of worry that comes from people who cared about him.
A memorial page kept by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs honors a veteran named Alexander Monroe Murrell, born Nov. 12, 1945, who died Nov. 25, 2009. Those dates match the date on which Murrell was found and the age police gave, which suggests that the man killed on Edmondson Avenue was a military veteran who had turned 64 less than two weeks before his death. The memorial page itself gives few other details, and no newspaper obituary for him could be found for this story.
The record leaves the most important questions open. It does not say when exactly he was attacked between Nov. 23 and Nov. 25, whether anything was taken from his room, whether the door had been forced, or whether he knew the person who hurt him. It does not say whether anyone in the building heard a disturbance or saw a visitor, or whether investigators ever named a suspect.
Edmondson Avenue is one of the main roads through West Baltimore, lined for much of its length with rowhouses, small shops and churches. A rented room in a building on that busy street would have had neighbors, other tenants and a landlord who saw people come and go.
Baltimore recorded roughly 200 to 280 homicides a year between 2007 and 2014, one of the highest rates of any large American city, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Alexander Murrell could be found in news archives or public records. More than 16 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who lived in or visited the 2400 block of Edmondson Avenue in the days just before Thanksgiving in November 2009, or who saw Alexander Murrell with someone around Nov. 23 or Nov. 24, may know something that could help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call Baltimore Police homicide detectives at 410-396-2100, or leave an anonymous tip with Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7LOCKUP (1-866-756-2587).
