Matthew Walker was 20 years old when he was killed in St. Louis, Missouri, on Saturday, June 28, 2008. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department investigated his death, and the Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in St. Louis from 2007 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 Matthew Walker 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, and no reward offer could be found.
He was only 20 years old and was killed on a Saturday at the end of June, in the heart of summer. A young man that age would usually have been surrounded by friends, classmates and family who could know who he had been with in the days before he died.
Matthew Walker is a very common name, and searches for it are dominated by other people. They include a 20-year-old soldier from the St. Louis area named Matthew Walker who was killed in Afghanistan in 2014, and a man named Matthew Walker who died in Duluth, Minnesota, in 2015, in a case prosecutors later ruled self-defense. Neither has any connection to the young man who was killed in St. Louis in June 2008.
The location recorded in the database places his death in north St. Louis, in the area around O'Fallon Park. The park and the surrounding streets are a gathering place for families and young people in the summer, and on a warm late-June day many people would have been outdoors. Someone who was nearby that day may remember what they saw.
St. Louis had one of the highest homicide rates of any large American city in those years. The city, home to roughly 350,000 people at the time, recorded 167 homicides in 2008 and 143 in 2009, and the Washington Post's analysis found that roughly half of the city's killings between 2007 and 2017 never led to an arrest. Cases with few public details often faded from view quickly.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Matthew Walker 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 Matthew Walker and saw him in the days before he died, or who 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).
