Steven Daniel was 29 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Saturday, October 11, 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.
Beyond his name, his age and the date of his death, almost nothing about Steven Daniel 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 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.
Steven Daniel is also a common pairing of names, and searches are flooded with men who carry it as a first and middle name, along with an Atlanta publicist, a federal judge and people named in unrelated criminal cases in other states. None of them is the 29-year-old who died in Atlanta in October 2008. The crowd of namesakes makes his own story very hard to find.
It is also possible that he went by a nickname or a middle name that does not appear in the database. Anyone who knew a 29-year-old man of this name who died in Atlanta in October 2008, under whatever name they called him, may be able to add to what little is known.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in southwest Atlanta, a few miles from downtown. People who lived in that part of the city in mid-October 2008 may remember Steven, and may remember the police activity that followed his death on a Saturday.
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. Most victims were young men like Steven, and cases with few public details often faded from view quickly.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Steven Daniel 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 Steven Daniel, saw him on the weekend he died, or heard talk afterward of what happened, 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.
