On the evening of April 28, 2021, a deceptive online encounter turned fatal for Tommy Curry, a 31-year-old Black/African American man from Iowa City, Iowa. Curry was discovered with multiple gunshot wounds inside his vehicle at the Meadow Lark Apartments on Lakeside Drive. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The investigation into his death revealed a sinister plot of deception and revenge.
Detectives uncovered that for over three months, Curry had been communicating with someone he believed to be a woman on a dating website. This online persona was, in fact, created and maintained by Renard Winfield, Jr., a 29-year-old from Gary, Indiana. On the night of the shooting, text messages show that Curry was lured to the apartment complex under the pretense of meeting this woman.
Eyewitnesses at the scene reported seeing a man approach Curry's vehicle and open fire before fleeing in a white SUV. Investigators linked the phone number and dating profile used to communicate with Curry directly to Winfield. Further evidence, including surveillance footage, showed a white Dodge Journey registered to one of Winfield's relatives in Iowa City on the days leading up to and on the day of the murder. Cell phone records also placed Winfield in the vicinity of the shooting at the time it occurred. A search of Winfield's phone after his arrest revealed screenshots of Curry's dating profile and a video of Winfield with a gun believed to be the murder weapon.
The motive for the calculated murder appeared to be revenge. It was reported that Winfield had been shot at a residence in Iowa City in June of the previous year, an incident in which Curry was implicated. Following his arrest on May 15, 2021, Renard Winfield, Jr. was charged with first-degree murder. In December 2024, a jury found him guilty. He was subsequently sentenced to a mandatory life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole.
