Matthew W. Kennedy was a 43-year-old White/Caucasian male whose life was cut short after a late-night shooting at VFW Post 838 in Port Penn, Delaware. In the early hours of Sunday, May 31, 2015, Kennedy was in the parking lot of the VFW at 15 West Market Street when he was shot multiple times. The shooting occurred at approximately 12:35 a.m., leaving him critically wounded.
Kennedy was taken to Christiana Hospital, where doctors attempted to save him. Although the Delaware State Police cold-case record lists May 31 as the date he was murdered, contemporary reporting and his obituary state that Kennedy remained hospitalized after the shooting and died from his injuries on Tuesday, June 2, 2015. At the time, he was described as a Newark resident rather than a resident of Port Penn; Port Penn was the location where the shooting occurred.
Kennedy was a lifelong Delawarean who had been born in Wilmington on December 1, 1971. He was the son of Dennis Kennedy and Jill Arbogast and had attended and graduated from William Penn High School. As an adult, he worked as an HVAC technician for Amstel Mechanical Contractors. He was married to Lindsay Butler Kennedy and left behind his parents, siblings, extended family, and his dogs, Jemma and Harley. His funeral service was held in New Castle on June 11, 2015.
What led to the gunfire in the VFW parking lot has never been publicly explained in the information released by investigators. Available law-enforcement information does not identify a motive, describe an argument or confrontation preceding the shooting, or name anyone believed responsible. Delaware State Police eventually classified Kennedy's killing among its unsolved New Castle County homicides, and his case remains listed by the agency's Cold Case Unit under case number 09-15-31630.
No publicly available record located in connection with Kennedy's homicide identifies a suspect or person of interest, and there is no indication that anyone has been arrested, charged, tried, or convicted for killing him. More than a decade after the shooting, Delaware State Police continue to seek information about the case. The agency asks anyone with information concerning Kennedy's murder to contact the Delaware State Police Cold Case Unit/Homicide section at 302-739-5939 or provide information through Delaware Crime Stoppers.
