In the early morning hours of July 14, 2016, the quiet of an Indianapolis neighborhood was broken by a sound that would later be identified as a fatal gunshot. Angela Wright, a 41-year-old woman, was found deceased in the 3000 block of Nowland Avenue, lying in the street next to a parked red Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. An autopsy would later confirm that she had died from a gunshot wound to the head, and her death was ruled a homicide.
For years, the case remained cold, a painful mystery for her loved ones and a lingering puzzle for law enforcement.
The initial investigation by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department involved processing the scene for forensic evidence. Investigators found fingerprints on the pickup truck that belonged to a friend of Wright's. They also collected what would prove to be the most crucial piece of evidence: DNA from underneath Angela Wright's fingernails. Despite these findings, a suspect remained elusive, and the case grew cold. The department even released a video in 2017 appealing to the public for any information that could lead to a breakthrough in the unsolved murder.
A significant break in the case finally came more than six years later, in the spring of 2022. A DNA database returned a match to the sample taken from underneath Wright's fingernails. The DNA belonged to Jaylaun Kishon Walker. Further investigation revealed that Walker's fingerprints also matched those found on the pickup truck at the scene of the crime. At the time of the murder, Walker was 17 years old and lived less than a quarter of a mile from where Wright's body was discovered.
In September 2022, Jaylaun Kishon Walker, then 23 years old, was arrested and formally charged with the murder of Angela Wright. He was already in custody on unrelated armed robbery charges from June of that year. During interviews with detectives, Walker initially denied ever having seen or interacted with Wright. When confronted with the evidence of his fingerprints on the truck, he suggested he may have broken into cars in the area. Upon being told his DNA was found on her body, he altered his story, stating he recalled speaking with a female in a pickup but denied any physical altercation or entering the vehicle. As of the latest available information, the outcome of the murder charge against Jaylaun Kishon Walker, including details of a trial or conviction, has not been publicly reported.
