Do you know who murdered Preston Allen? Preston Allen was an African-American man from Washington, DC, a father and son whose life ended in a still-unsolved double homicide that has haunted his family and community for nearly two decades. Online records describe him as living and rooted in the District, with a close-knit family that included two young sons, Dejuan and Priest, his parents Ronald Sr. and Ernestine Allen, and brothers Ronald Jr. and Omar.
His obituary in the Washington Post notes that he died in March 2006 and that the family gathered for a church funeral at Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church before his burial at Fort Lincoln Cemetery, and later guestbook messages portray him as a warm, funny man who loved storytelling, music, and cars, remembered constantly by friends, nieces, nephews, and his children.
In the early hours of Friday, March 24, 2006, the quiet of the 400 block of Quackenbos Street NW in Washington, DC, was broken by a grim discovery. Around 2 a.m., police responding in that residential Northwest neighborhood found a car sitting on the block; inside were Preston Allen and his friend Kristopher Gilmore, both unresponsive. Official summaries from the Metropolitan Police Department and several case-tracking sites agree that the two men had been shot and were pronounced dead at the scene, turning the parked vehicle into the centerpiece of a double homicide investigation.
From the outset, detectives treated the killings as a major case. The MPD's Violent Crimes Branch took charge of the investigation, and the department produced a public reward poster highlighting the double homicide, showing the faces of both men and emphasizing that the shootings occurred at about 2 a.m. in the 400 block of Quackenbos Street NW. Authorities appealed for witnesses and encouraged anyone with information to call named detectives or the police command center, while the department's broader homicide reward program promised cash for tips leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever was responsible. Separate cold-case and community-justice sites reiterate that the car was the primary crime scene, that both victims suffered fatal gunshot wounds, and that the Metropolitan Police have continued to seek help from the public in hopes of moving the case forward.
Yet, despite the early focus on the case, no clear narrative of what led up to that night has ever emerged in public view. CrimeSolversCentral's entry for the case, as well as a companion page focused on Kristopher Gilmore, note that police have not released any information about possible suspects or a motive and that no arrest has been reported; the homicide is explicitly marked as unsolved even in recent updates. The same status appears on the MPD's own “Major Case/Unsolved Homicides – 2006” list, where Preston's name is tied to the Quackenbos Street address with a note that the killing was part of a double homicide. One of the victim-focused case pages emphasizes that authorities are still actively encouraging tips and that a reward of up to $50,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the deaths of Allen and Gilmore, underlining how completely the perpetrators have remained in the shadows.
For Preston's loved ones, the years since have been measured not in investigative milestones but in birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries observed without him. The online guestbook attached to his obituary, spanning from 2006 into the 2020s, contains messages from friends who reminisce about joking around with him in high school hallways, from relatives who call him by nicknames and remember shared cars and music, and from his children and nieces and nephews who write about missing a father or uncle they knew only briefly or not at all. These posts show a family and community still trying to make sense of a sudden, violent loss and still hoping that someone will finally come forward with a crucial piece of information. More than nineteen years after Preston Allen was found shot to death in that parked car on Quackenbos Street, his case remains officially unsolved, and the story that began in the early morning darkness of March 24, 2006, is still waiting for an ending that includes accountability and answers.
