On the evening of December 26, 2004, a sense of holiday bustle was winding down at the Casual Male Big and Tall store on Kirkwood Highway in Wilmington, Delaware. Inside, 18-year-old Matthew Macerato, a White male, was working alongside his 22-year-old colleague, Jessica Watson. For Matthew, a talented musician who had recently co-founded a studio, the job was a recent undertaking; he had only been employed at the store for about a week and had picked up the shift to help a coworker.
As
closing time approached around 6:00 p.m., an armed intruder entered the store. The employees were forced into the basement, where they were both shot and killed execution-style. The discovery was made later that evening, around 9:15 p.m., when Jessica's sister, concerned after not being able to reach her, went to the store and found the back door unlocked. Inside, she found the tragic scene.
The initial investigation suggested a robbery, as petty cash was taken from the register, but the otherwise orderly state of the store and the brutal nature of the killings led investigators to question the primary motive. The store lacked surveillance cameras, complicating the efforts of the Delaware State Police. Investigators tracked down the last customer to make a purchase that evening, who reported seeing a heavy-set white man, approximately 6 feet tall with the back of his head shaven, in the store at the time he left. This individual has remained a person of interest, though he has never been identified.
In the years that have passed since the double homicide, the case has grown cold. Despite public appeals for information and the circulation of the victims' stories in cold case playing cards distributed in correctional facilities, no arrests have been made, and no suspects have been officially named. The families of Matthew Macerato and Jessica Watson continue to hold vigils and seek justice, remembering the vibrant young lives that were tragically cut short on the day after Christmas. The case remains an open and haunting mystery for the Wilmington community and law enforcement.
