In the summer of 2017, the life of 39-year-old Marall Edwards was tragically cut short. On the night of July 15th, officers from the Midtown Hills Precinct responded to a shooting call at the Acklen Park apartment complex in Nashville, Tennessee. Just inside the doorway of an apartment, they found Marall Edwards, who had sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the chest. The initial investigation into the death of the male victim left detectives with unanswered questions, and the case eventually went cold.
Years later, a breakthrough in the investigation came from an unlikely source: advancements in DNA science. Items that were collected from the crime scene back in 2017 underwent further analysis at the Metro Nashville Police Department Crime Laboratory. This re-examination provided detectives with the crucial evidence they needed to move forward with the case. The new information directly linked three individuals to the murder of Marall Edwards.
As a result of the new DNA evidence, three ex-convicts were indicted by a grand jury. Kurtis Word, who was 44 at the time, Kevin Hoggett, then 41, and Larry Beddingfield, aged 45, were all arrested and charged with first-degree murder, especially aggravated robbery, and aggravated burglary. Each of the three men, who all had prior felony convictions, were jailed in lieu of a $500,000 bond. The diligent work of the cold case and Midtown Hills detectives ultimately brought about these long-awaited arrests in connection with the death of Marall Edwards.
