Tavaris Randell was 22 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Wednesday, June 20, 2007. The Atlanta Police Department 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 Tavaris Randell has been made public.
No news story about the killing, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account. He surely had family, friends and neighbors who remember who he was, but little of that has entered the public record.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown. The record does not say how he was killed, whether he was attacked indoors or on the street, whether he knew his attacker, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
Tavaris Randell's name also appears in a 2018 Washington Post investigation that listed thousands of homicide victims in major American cities whose killings had not led to an arrest. An online cold-case listing that carries the Post's record gives his age as 22, lists the cause of death as murder and names the Atlanta Police Department as the agency, but it adds no details.
His age stands out. At 22, Tavaris Randell was barely an adult, the age at which many young men are finishing school, starting work or raising young children. People his own age, including classmates, co-workers and friends from the neighborhood, are the ones most likely to remember where he was and who he was with in June 2007.
The spelling of his name may also matter. Public records list people with similar names, including a Tavaris Randell Whitfield in metro Atlanta, which raises the possibility that Randell was a middle name or that his name was recorded in more than one way. That could not be confirmed, and it may help explain why his story has been so hard to follow.
The location recorded in the database places his death in southwest Atlanta, a largely residential part of the city of single-family streets, apartment complexes and small commercial strips. People who lived there in the summer of 2007 may remember the police response that followed his death on a Wednesday in late June.
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 were young men killed with guns, and many of those killings 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 Tavaris Randell 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 Tavaris Randell, saw him in the days before he died, 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 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.
