Varico Bush, a 43-year-old Black man, was known in life as Varico Drell Bush, a son and brother whose roots tied him closely to both Jackson and Starkville, Mississippi. Obituaries describe him as “Mr. Varico D. Bush” and place him in Jackson at the time of his death, while his farewell was centered in Starkville, where his family arranged visitation at West Memorial Funeral Home and a funeral service at Truvine Missionary Baptist Church, followed by burial in Truvine Cemetery.
His parents, Ruth Rice and Eddie Hinton, his grandmothers Mary Louise McDowell and Sarah Pearl Bush, along with two sisters and four brothers, were listed among those left to carry his memory, suggesting a large extended family circle that gathered around him in mourning.
In the early hours of April 17, 2019, the routine of a weekday morning in west Jackson was broken when police were called to Moss Avenue, a residential street just off Capitol Street not far from the city’s zoo. There, officers found Bush lying on or near the roadway, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The discovery was made shortly before 7 a.m., and by the time first responders arrived, there was nothing they could do to save him; he was pronounced dead at the scene, another life cut short by gunfire in a city already grappling with violence. Local coverage later framed the incident as a man “found shot to death near Capitol Street,” underlining how suddenly his last moments unfolded in a place where people were beginning their day.
Detectives with the Jackson Police Department opened a homicide investigation and tried to piece together what had happened before Bush’s body was found. Early reports from investigators made clear how little they had to work with: they could say that he had been shot multiple times, but they were not even certain whether the attack occurred on Moss Avenue or whether his body had been left there after the shooting took place somewhere else. No description of a vehicle, assailant, or confrontation was shared publicly; there was no mention of an argument, robbery, or any other motive that might explain why someone targeted him. The department characterized his killing as a slaying under investigation and emphasized the unanswered questions more than any leads they might have had.
With little concrete information, investigators turned to the public for help. Crime Stoppers’ phone number was broadcast repeatedly in news reports, and authorities appealed for anyone who had been in the area that morning, or who might have seen or heard something overnight, to come forward. Yet in the months and years that followed, publicly available records and obituary notices remained silent on any breakthrough. There were no follow-up reports naming a suspect, announcing an arrest, or describing a trial connected to Bush’s death, and memorial sites that acknowledge his killing simply mark him as “lost to gun violence” on that April day in Jackson without hinting at an identified shooter.
While his family gathered in Starkville on April 26 and 27, 2019, for visitation and funeral services, the questions surrounding how and why he died remained with those who loved him. Candles lit in his name online and the careful listing of relatives in funeral notices suggest an effort to preserve his memory in the absence of public answers about the crime itself. As far as can be determined from the record, no one has been publicly identified, arrested, or prosecuted for the shooting that ended Varico Bush’s life on Moss Avenue, leaving his case among the many unsolved homicides that quietly shadow the city’s recent history.
