On a Saturday evening in May of 2018, Justin Kyle Lett, a 28-year-old medical salesman, went out with friends in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. Their night concluded at Marty's PM in the Five Points South area. In the early morning hours of Sunday, May 13th, at approximately 2:50 a.m., Lett was seen getting into the front passenger side of a newer model white sedan that had pulled up outside the establishment.
After he entered the car, his family and friends were unable to reach him.
The following day, Monday, May 14th, 2018, Lett's body was discovered at 11:30 a.m. in an alley between Appalachee and Coosa streets. He had been shot multiple times, and it appeared his body had been left at that location. Investigators with the Birmingham Police Department began searching for the driver of the white sedan, who was described as a white male, believing he could provide crucial information about Lett's whereabouts after leaving Marty's PM.
For more than two years, the case remained a lingering mystery, a source of deep pain for Lett's loved ones who remembered him as a man with a profound passion for life and a deep love for people. He was an active member of his church and was described by a pastor as a 'mighty man of God.' Originally from Arizona, where he was a standout high school football player, Lett had graduated from Samford University in Birmingham with a double major in Entrepreneurship and Marketing.
In November 2020, a break in the cold case came when Birmingham police announced an arrest. Detectives with the homicide cold case unit identified 29-year-old Cameron Cook of Birmingham as the suspect. Information gathered during the extensive investigation was presented to the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office, leading to a murder warrant being issued for Cook. At the time the warrant was served, Cook was already incarcerated at the Jefferson County Jail, being held on a separate capital murder charge in the 2018 killing of 55-year-old Denise Fassel.
