Do you know who murdered Karessa Bartee? On the night of Wednesday, November 21, 2001, Karessa N. Bartee, an African-American / Black woman from Washington, D.C., was found dead along the 2900 block of M Street Southeast, turning an ordinary evening in that neighborhood into the beginning of a mystery that has never been fully explained. Police records describe how officers responded to the scene and discovered her body there, immediately recognizing that her death was not natural and treating the location as a homicide crime scene.
The discovery of Karessa’s body prompted a full homicide investigation. Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch – later referenced as part of the Homicide and Sexual Offenses Branch – began the painstaking work of reconstructing her final movements. They canvassed the surrounding blocks, spoke with potential witnesses, and collected forensic evidence from where she was found, but the circumstances remained opaque. According to later summaries, the homicide occurred late in the evening, and investigators were unable to piece together enough information to firmly establish what led her to that stretch of M Street or exactly how the fatal encounter unfolded.
From early on, the department signaled publicly that help from the community was crucial. Karessa’s case was added to the Metropolitan Police Department’s roster of major unsolved homicides for 2001, and authorities produced reward flyers featuring her photograph, the date she was found, and the location on M Street SE. Those notices promised a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever was responsible, urging anyone who knew anything, no matter how small, to contact detectives or the department’s tip lines. The flyer and accompanying online notice were updated years later, showing that the case continued to receive attention even as time passed.
Outside law enforcement, Karessa’s death has been documented in cold-case databases that place her among Washington’s unsolved “death by force” homicides. These accounts echo the official description: she was found dead in the 2900 block of M Street SE on November 21, 2001; the killing occurred at night; and despite extensive work by investigators, the case remains without resolution. The entries emphasize that the details of what happened to her are still unclear and that the investigation has been led by the Metropolitan Police Department’s specialized homicide units.
Years later, the case is described as a cold case that is still periodically revisited. Summaries note that detectives continue to review the evidence as forensic methods improve, hoping that something already collected, or something still to be shared by a witness, will finally provide a breakthrough. Publicly available information, however, makes no mention of any suspect being identified by name, and there are no reports of an arrest connected to her killing. Everything released to the public – the police appeals, the reward notices, and the independent cold-case write-ups – describes Karessa’s death as an unsolved homicide, with the person or people responsible still unknown.
Today, Karessa’s name appears on unsolved homicide lists and cold-case sites that continue to highlight her story in the hope that someone will finally come forward. The reward offer, the presence of her case in online homicide archives, and the language used by both police and civilian investigators all reinforce the same stark reality: more than two decades after she was found on M Street SE, no one has been publicly charged with her murder, and the answers her family and community once expected to receive have yet to emerge.
