On the evening of September 29, 1993, the life of 23-year-old Tracy Brown, a Black/African American female, was tragically cut short in her Boston, Massachusetts apartment. In a brutal act of violence, she and her 17-year-old cousin, Celine Kirk, were found murdered, both having suffered gunshot wounds to the head. The devastating discovery was made after a two-year-old child, Tracy's son, answered the door for police and told them, "Mommy is on the floor."
Officers had been dispatched to the Mattapan residence after a telephone company supervisor reported a call for help from the young child.
The investigation into the double homicide quickly became entangled with another high-profile murder case that had occurred just days earlier: the shooting death of Boston Police Detective John Mulligan. Investigators initially questioned Tracy's cousin, Sean Ellis, who had recently moved into her apartment. Ellis provided an alibi for the time of Detective Mulligan's murder and suggested that Celine Kirk's 18-year-old ex-boyfriend, Craig Hood, might be responsible for the women's deaths. This lead proved to be significant in solving the murders of Tracy and Celine.
On October 2, 1993, Craig Hood was arrested on outstanding warrants. The following day, he provided a detailed and audiotaped confession to the Boston Police, admitting to the murders of both Tracy Brown and Celine Kirk. In his confession, Hood stated that he had gone to the apartment to argue with Kirk. He claimed that during the argument, he "just lost it" and shot her. He then shot Tracy Brown, whom he had never met before that day, because he became afraid and did not want to go to prison. After shooting Tracy, he shot Celine a second time out of fear. In June 1995, Craig Hood pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
