Elijah Covington, 19, a Black/African American male, died on February 12, 2021, in Newark, Delaware, in a double homicide that began with a call about something that looked out of place on a cold winter morning. Around 6:15 a.m., New Castle County police officers were sent to the unit block of Carlisle Road in the Brookside community after someone reported a suspicious vehicle parked in the roadway.
When officers arrived, they found two deceased young men inside the vehicle: Elijah Covington and 20-year-old Zyitae Britt.
The scene quickly shifted from a suspicious-vehicle call into a homicide investigation. Detectives from the New Castle County Division of Police Criminal Investigations Unit took over after the discovery, and police later identified the victims as Covington and Britt. Later reporting and police updates described both men as having been found dead from gunshot wounds inside the vehicle. One account described the vehicle as a red sedan, notably free of snow while nearby vehicles still showed signs of a recent storm, adding to the sense that the car had drawn attention before officers approached it.
From the beginning, police publicly framed the deaths as a violent and unresolved crime. Then-Colonel Vaughn M. Bond Jr. offered condolences to the families and said the department was working to identify those responsible. Investigators asked the public for information, including any video that might help them understand what happened before the two men were found. Detective Kevin Mackie was named as a contact early in the investigation, and the public was also directed to New Castle County police channels and Crime Stoppers.
Years later, the case remained open. In February 2024, the New Castle County Division of Police Cold Case Squad issued an unsolved homicide review stating that the 2021 murder of Elijah Covington and Zyitae Britt was still under investigation. That review again described officers being dispatched to Carlisle Road in Brookside for a suspicious vehicle and finding both victims deceased from gunshot wounds inside. Detectives continued asking anyone with information to contact Sgt. Mackie or provide tips through police or Crime Stoppers.
No arrests have been publicly reported in the deaths of Elijah Covington and Zyitae Britt. No suspect or suspects have been publicly identified in the available police and news reports, and there is no public record in those sources of charges, trial proceedings, or convictions connected to the case. The most recent official police update located described the matter as an active cold case, with investigators still seeking the information needed to bring the case to a resolution.
