Leon Shaw was 38 years old when he was killed in St. Louis on Saturday, November 10, 2007. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated his death, and the Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in St. Louis through 2017, lists it as a homicide that remained open with no arrest.
Beyond his name, his age and the date of his death, almost nothing about Leon Shaw has been made public.
No news story about the killing, obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account. He surely had family, friends and neighbors who remember who he was, but none of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say how he was killed, whether he was attacked indoors or on the street, whether he knew his attacker, what time of day it happened, whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital, or whether anyone else was hurt. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect or a motive.
Leon Shaw's name also appears in a 2018 Washington Post investigation that listed thousands of homicide victims across major American cities whose killings had not led to an arrest. Being on that list means that, a decade after his death, the case was still counted among those for which no one had been arrested.
He was 38 and died on a Saturday in early November, less than three weeks before Thanksgiving.
Leon Shaw is a common name. Searches turn up an unrelated 1989 killing in Alabama, court cases, obituaries and listings for many other men named Leon Shaw. None of them concern the man who died in St. Louis in 2007.
The location recorded in the database places his death just north of downtown, near Old North St. Louis and the riverfront. The area mixes restored brick homes, vacant lots and industrial buildings, and people who lived or worked there in November 2007 may remember the police activity that followed.
St. Louis was, and remains, one of the most violent large cities in the United States. Police counted 138 homicides in the city in 2007 and 167 in 2008, in a city of roughly 350,000 people, and many of those cases were never solved. With so many killings each year, the ones that received no news coverage could slip out of public view within weeks.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Leon Shaw could be found in news archives or public records. More than 18 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Leon Shaw, saw him in early November 2007, or heard talk afterward of what happened to him may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a car seen leaving the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Division at 314-444-5371, or leave an anonymous tip with CrimeStoppers at 866-371-TIPS (866-371-8477).
