In the early morning hours of November 3, 2009, the quiet downtown streets of Nashville, TN, bore silent witness to a tragedy. On a public bench at the intersection of Church Street and 5th Avenue North, a Metro Police officer discovered the body of 46-year-old Edward P. Matthews. He had been fatally shot in the head. The discovery, made at approximately 6:45 a.m., marked the beginning of a homicide investigation into the untimely death of the male victim.
For years, the case of who
killed Edward Matthews remained cold, a lingering question in the city's files of unsolved crimes. There were few public leads, and the trail seemed to have gone cold. It wasn't until three years later that a potential connection emerged from another homicide case that shocked the city. In October 2012, investigators announced they were looking into a possible link between the murder of Edward Matthews and a man named Christopher Jerald Crowley.
Crowley had been arrested and charged with the murder of another man, Robert E. Mitchell, who was also found shot to death on a public bench in Nashville. The similarities between the two killings prompted detectives to consider Crowley as a person of interest in the Matthews case. Despite this promising lead and the subsequent conviction of Crowley for the murder of Robert E. Mitchell, no charges were ever publicly filed against him in connection with the death of Edward P. Matthews.
The investigation into Edward P. Matthews' murder remains open. His case is now listed among the city's cold cases, a somber reminder of a life cut short and a quest for justice that continues. While a person of interest was identified, the definitive answers as to who was responsible for the death of Edward P. Matthews and the circumstances surrounding that fateful November morning have yet to be brought to light.
