Darnell Edmonds, 31, died on Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2013, a day after he was stabbed in the 900 block of Coppin Court in South Baltimore. The Baltimore Police Department investigated, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists his death as a homicide caused by stabbing.
Very little about the attack was ever made public. According to WBAL-TV, police were called to the 900 block of Coppin Court on the evening of Monday, Dec. 23, and found a man who had been stabbed in the head.
He was taken to a hospital, where he died the following evening, Christmas Eve. Police identified him as Darnell Edmonds, and WBAL NewsRadio reported that his last known address was on Bethune Road. WBAL-TV reported that Southern District detectives were investigating, and WBAL NewsRadio said homicide detectives were on the case. The reports did not describe a motive, a suspect or any witnesses.
That night was a violent one across the city. WBAL-TV reported that within a few hours of the stabbing, a 54-year-old man was fatally shot at Mount and Mosher streets in West Baltimore and two other men were wounded by gunfire elsewhere. Police did not suggest that any of those incidents were connected to the attack on Edmonds.
No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser for Edmonds could be found for this story. He surely had family, friends and neighbors who remember him, but their memories have not entered the public record. Darnell Edmonds is also a fairly common name, and several other men who share it appear in news coverage and public records, which makes it harder to trace his life through public sources.
The basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say whether he was stabbed during a fight or a robbery, by a stranger or by someone he knew, or whether anyone saw what happened. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Coppin Court and Bethune Road are both in South Baltimore, in the area of the Cherry Hill neighborhood, which sits along the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River. Cherry Hill was developed in the 1940s as housing for Black war workers and their families, and it remains a close-knit community separated from much of the rest of the city by water, rail lines and highways. In a community that close, it is possible that word of what happened that night reached people who never spoke to police.
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 Darnell Edmonds could be found in news archives or public records. More than 12 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Someone who was on or near Coppin Court on the evening of Dec. 23, 2013, or who heard talk in Cherry Hill in the days before that Christmas, may know what happened to him. 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).
