Marshall Hill was 55 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Tuesday, May 29, 2007. The Atlanta Police Department Homicide Unit investigated his death, and the Washington Post's homicide database, which tracked killings in Atlanta 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 Marshall Hill 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, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Death notices published in May 2007 name a Marshall Hill Sr., 55, of Jonesboro, formerly of East Orange, New Jersey, whose funeral was held on Saturday, May 26, 2007. Because that funeral took place three days before the date in the database, those notices probably refer to a different man, and they are noted here only because the name, age and year match. Other people named Marshall Hill, including a man killed in a 2017 highway crash in DeKalb County, have no known connection to this case.
His age stands out. At 55, he was older than most of Atlanta's homicide victims in those years. A man his age had likely worked for decades and would have been known to neighbors, co-workers and family. He was killed on Tuesday, May 29, 2007, the day after Memorial Day.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in southwest Atlanta, south and west of downtown. People who lived or worked in that area at the time may remember the police activity that followed his death, and may know more than they realize about what happened.
Atlanta, the capital of Georgia and the center of a metro area of more than 5 million people, recorded roughly 75 to 130 homicides a year between 2007 and 2017. Most victims in those years were young men, and most were killed with guns. Many killings from those years never led to an arrest, and the Washington Post's 2018 investigation counted Atlanta among the cities with large numbers of unsolved homicides. Cases with few public details, like his, often faded from view quickly.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Marshall Hill could be found in news archives or public records. More than 19 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Marshall Hill, or who saw him over the Memorial Day weekend of 2007, 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 Atlanta Police Department Homicide Unit at 404-546-4235, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta at 404-577-TIPS (404-577-8477), which may pay a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest.
