Do you know who murdered Joshua Compton and Mason Jones? In the early moments of a spring night in Chesapeake, Virginia, the lives of two teenage boys were tragically cut short in a burst of unexplained violence. Sixteen-year-old Mason Jones was spending the night at his best friend's house on Rowland Avenue in the South Norfolk area on April 15, 2009. What was supposed to be a night of video games and pizza between friends turned into a scene of bloodshed that has left a community searching for answers for over a decade.
Shortly after
midnight, a knock came at the door of the home belonging to seventeen-year-old Joshua Compton. Two men were at the door asking to speak with Joshua. For about ten minutes, Mason and Joshua stood in the doorway conversing with the visitors. Joshua's mother, who was in another room, could hear their voices but couldn't make out the conversation. Suddenly, the calm was shattered by the sound of multiple gunshots.
When the gunfire ceased, both Mason Jones and Joshua Compton lay mortally wounded in the doorway of the home. The assailants fled the scene, escaping into a waiting car that held a third individual. Despite an eyewitness account from Joshua's mother, who was present in the house at the time of the shooting, the suspects have never been identified. She described one of the men as a stocky Black male with squinted eyes, a wide face, standing about 5 feet 8 inches tall, and wearing a white cap or bandana and a dark-blue feather-down coat.
In the years that have followed, the double homicide of Mason Jones and Joshua Compton has remained an unsolved cold case. Chesapeake Police have investigated several leads, but no arrests have ever been made in connection with the murders. The community continues to hold out hope for justice as the families of the two slain teenagers await any new information that could lead to the apprehension of those responsible for the senseless act of violence that took their sons' lives. A reward has been offered for any information that leads to an arrest.
