Shelton Wilkerson was 36 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Sunday, March 30, 2008. The Atlanta Police Department Homicide Unit investigated, 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.
Little about his life has been made public. A family-placed death notice in Atlanta announced a homegoing service for Shelton D.
Wilkerson on Saturday, April 5, 2008, less than a week after his death. That notice shows that his family gathered to bury him, but no news story about the killing, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for this account.
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 the person who killed him, 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.
Shelton Wilkerson'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 the killing, the case was still counted among those no one had been arrested for.
His name is fairly uncommon, though searches also turn up a younger man of the same name, a university graduate, along with listings for relatives of other people. None of those records describes the 36-year-old who died in Atlanta in March 2008, and none of them mentions his death.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in west Atlanta, on the city's Westside a few miles from downtown. People who lived in that part of the city at the end of March 2008 may remember Shelton, and may remember the police activity that followed his death on a Sunday.
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 that period never led to an arrest, and the 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 Shelton Wilkerson 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 Shelton Wilkerson, attended his homegoing service, 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.
