Jemar Lucas was 21 years old when he was killed in Atlanta on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. 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.
A brief family-placed death notice is the only public account of his life that could be found.
Published through a funeral home in the Forest Park area south of Atlanta, it announced "homegoing services for Jemar Lucas Monday, 1 pm in our chapel," followed by burial, listed only as "Interment Lincoln." The notice does not describe his family, his schooling or his work, and it says nothing about how he died. No news story about his death could be found.
Because so little has been released, even the basic circumstances remain unknown to the public. The record does not say how he was killed, exactly where it happened, whether he knew the person responsible, or whether he died at the scene or later at a hospital. It does not say whether investigators ever identified a suspect.
The timing and his age stand out. He was killed on Tuesday, January 4, 2011, in the first week of the new year, and he was only 21. Young men his age made up a large share of Atlanta's homicide victims in those years, and a 21-year-old's friends, classmates and family are often the people who hear first what happened.
His case still appears on CrimeTea, an online cold-case listing, which carries his death as an active, unsolved murder in Atlanta, and a crime-mapping site lists him among the area's cold cases, recording his age as 21 and the investigating agency as the Atlanta Police Department. Neither listing adds detail about what happened.
The location recorded in the Post's database places his death in southwest Atlanta. People who lived or worked in that area in January 2011 may remember Jemar Lucas, and may remember the police activity that followed his death.
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 Jemar Lucas could be found in news archives or public records. More than 15 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew Jemar Lucas, who saw him over the New Year's holiday in 2011, 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 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.
