Darryl Spinks was 17 years old when he was killed in St. Louis on Monday, February 11, 2008. 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 Darryl Spinks 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.
Darryl Spinks'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.
Darryl Spinks was only 17, and he died on a Monday in mid-February 2008, just before Valentine's Day weekend. His case is listed as active on CrimeTea, an online database of unsolved cases, and he also has a victim profile on KillerFiles, a homicide archive, but neither adds details about how he died.
Searches for his name are confusing. A 17-year-old Darryl Spinks of St. Louis was arrested in Columbia, Missouri, in July 2008, five months after this Darryl Spinks died, so that was a different young man. The name is also shared by a member of a well-known St. Louis boxing family, a basketball player of the 1980s and others. None of those records concern this case.
The location recorded in the database places his death just north of downtown St. Louis, near Cass Avenue, an area of apartments, public housing and commercial blocks. People who lived there in February 2008 may remember the police activity that followed.
The killing came during a violent stretch for St. Louis, which has for years had one of the highest homicide rates of any large American city. The city recorded 138 homicides in 2007 and 167 in 2008, with roughly 350,000 residents, and a large share of those cases ended without anyone being charged. Killings that drew little press coverage were especially likely to fade from public memory.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Darryl Spinks 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 went to school with Darryl Spinks, knew his friends, or heard talk afterward of what happened to him may be able to help. People who were teenagers then are now adults, and some may feel able to speak now. 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).
