Dennis Settle, 39, was stabbed to death on Sunday, April 27, 2014, in the 1900 block of North Monroe Street in Baltimore. The Baltimore Police Department investigated the killing, and the Baltimore Sun's homicide database lists his death as a homicide.
Only one news report about his death could be found. WBAL-TV reported that the stabbing happened around 2:15 a.m.
that Sunday and that it was "originally reported on McKean Avenue" before police placed it in the 1900 block of North Monroe Street. Detectives said Settle "was stabbed several times and pronounced dead at the scene." The station added that officials were "looking into the possibility that Settle may have been involved in an argument before the attack." Police asked anyone with information to call 410-396-2100.
That short description suggests that the attack may not have come out of nowhere. An argument in the early hours of a weekend morning could mean that he knew the person who stabbed him, or that a dispute with someone he had just met turned deadly. The report did not say what the argument was about, who else was there, or whether anyone ran from the scene. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser for him could be found, and no later story described the investigation or named a suspect.
The same WBAL-TV report covered another killing from that same Sunday morning, a case in which a man walked into a police station and was charged. No such news followed in Dennis Settle's case. Beyond his age and the place he died, almost nothing about who he was, where he worked or who he left behind has entered the public record. He surely had people who loved him and who still wonder what happened in those early morning hours.
North Monroe Street is a long residential street of rowhouses, crossed by McKean Avenue near the 1900 block. At 2:15 on a Sunday morning, the people most likely to be out were neighbors coming home late, people on their porches or corners, and drivers passing through. Any of them may have heard raised voices before the attack.
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 Dennis Settle 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. Anyone who was near North Monroe Street and McKean Avenue in the early hours of April 27, 2014, or who knew of an argument involving a 39-year-old man named Dennis Settle that weekend, may know something important. 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).
