Vincent DiMenco, a 36-year-old White male from Wilmington, Delaware, was spending the early hours of June 17, 2018, with his friend Duncan Dorsey at the Dorsey family home on Lloyd Street in the Belvedere community. The gathering was meant to celebrate Duncan's birthday. DiMenco and Duncan were seated in the front yard, while Duncan's 15-year-old daughter, Doris Dorsey, sat in the family vehicle in the driveway, using FaceTime to talk and play games with a friend.
Shortly after 1:00 a.m., an armed stranger walked onto the property carrying a 12-gauge shotgun.
When Duncan stood to confront the approaching man, the gunman cocked the shotgun and opened fire into the vehicle where Doris was sitting. Duncan threw a chair in an effort to protect his daughter, but the attacker fired into the car again. As the violence unfolded, DiMenco attempted to run from the yard. The shooter turned the weapon toward him and fired, striking DiMenco in the head and killing him. Another blast went through the home's front door, grazed Duncan's wife, who was also named Doris, and continued through walls and a cabinet before lodging in a backyard shed. Duncan escaped and ran to a nearby fire station to summon help. The first 911 call was received at approximately 1:26 a.m. Police found DiMenco's body after arriving at the scene, and he was pronounced dead there. The younger Doris was taken to Christiana Hospital, where she was also pronounced dead.
The attack initially appeared unprovoked, and investigators said neither DiMenco nor the teenage victim was believed to have known the killer. Detectives began piecing the case together through neighborhood and business surveillance recordings. Video showed a white GMC Terrain traveling near Lloyd Street shortly before the shootings. Investigators also traced the type of 12-gauge ammunition recovered at the crime scene to a Walmart purchase made by Glenford Blackwood, whose recorded birth date and vehicle registration matched information connected to the transaction. Additional footage placed a similar white sport utility vehicle near Blackwood's home and the crime scene during the critical period.
The investigation uncovered what prosecutors described as a revenge motive rooted in a 2015 incident at a Wilmington-area Family Dollar store. Blackwood had been working there as a loss-prevention officer when he confronted a suspected shoplifter who had arrived with Duncan's wife in the Dorsey family vehicle. During the resulting confrontation, Blackwood was beaten, knocked unconscious and nearly struck by the vehicle. Years later, investigators found papers about that episode in Blackwood's bedroom, including Duncan Dorsey's name and the Lloyd Street address. Authorities ultimately concluded that Blackwood went to the home intending to kill Duncan's wife and apparently mistook her daughter for her when he fired into the car. DiMenco, who had no known connection to the earlier dispute, was killed while trying to escape the attack.
Police searched Blackwood's residence on June 22, 2018, seizing his cellphone and boots that later tested as having particles characteristic of gunshot residue. His phone, Google location information, surveillance footage, vehicle records and the ammunition transaction helped undermine his claim that he had returned home from a party and remained there throughout the time of the killings. Investigators also found that his phone had been used in the following days to search for information about the death penalty and the nickname the press had given the unidentified shooter. A photograph on the device showed Blackwood holding a shotgun.
After a three-month investigation, police arrested Blackwood on September 21, 2018. He was initially charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two firearm offenses, arraigned in Justice of the Peace Court and held on $2.12 million cash bail. The prosecution later expanded the case to include the shots fired at Duncan and his wife. Following a ten-day Superior Court trial in July 2021, a jury convicted Blackwood of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and four counts of possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Blackwood received a life sentence for each murder and attempted-murder conviction, along with a combined 20 additional years for the firearm offenses. He appealed, disputing aspects of the evidence and trial proceedings, but the Delaware Supreme Court rejected his claims and affirmed the convictions and sentences on October 11, 2023. The judgment left Blackwood serving multiple life terms for the attack that killed DiMenco and Doris Dorsey and endangered both of her parents.
