‘Nobody’s Ever Going to be Held Accountable’: Families of Unsolved Murder Victims Fight to Maintain Hope

By Edgar Mendez

This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on fifteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Visit milwaukeenns.org.

As she sits on her living room sofa surrounded by a large cutout, framed photos and a houseful of other reminders of her son Javon, Andrea Wilson, 41, can’t help but lose hope that her son’s murder will ever be solved.

“Nobody’s ever going to be held accountable,” she said. “It just feels like no one is going to be held responsible for his murder.”

It’s been nearly a year since she’s heard from Milwaukee homicide detectives and more than 16 months since Javon, 21, was hanging out with a group of friends when someone opened fire on them. They took him to St. Joseph’s hospital, where he died from a gunshot wound to his stomach.

Losing her first born is bad enough, she said, but not having justice makes it harder. Wilson is not alone in her struggles. In Milwaukee, hundreds of families share the unenviable bond of having a loved one murdered, with no one held responsible for it.

Unsolved murders in Milwaukee

From 2020 to 2024, 901 homicides occurred in the city of Milwaukee. Over 350 of those murders remain unsolved, based on homicide clearance data provided by the Milwaukee Police Department.

The homicide clearance rate refers to the percentage of cases cleared through arrest or because an arrest is impossible because of certain circumstances such as death, divided by the total number of homicides. Clearance rates also factor in murders solved during a calendar year for incidents that occurred in prior years.

The clearance rate in Milwaukee fluctuated between 50% and 59% from 2020 to 2023. The year Javon was murdered, in 2023, 59% of 172 murders were cleared.

Last year, when homicides dropped in the city by 30%, the clearance rate rose to 78%. Unsurprisingly, the clearance rate was lowest during the peak of the COVID pandemic when the number of homicides exploded in Milwaukee.

Javon’s story

Javon was a fast talker and good kid who excelled at wrestling and other sports in school. He was also extremely bright, graduating from West Allis Central High School with a 3.9 GPA. Offered two college scholarships, he chose instead to attend MATC and pursue his dreams of being a rapper and entrepreneur.

The day he got shot began like any other. He went to play basketball, came home to shower, and he let his mother know that he was heading out again.

Then there was a knock at the door, and she learned Javon had been shot and was in the hospital.

As she arrived, she asked about his condition.

All the hospital staff would tell her, she said, is that they were waiting for detectives to arrive.

“I should have realized then that he was already dead,” Wilson said.

Wilson said her son wasn’t the intended victim but got caught up in someone else’s beef.

After he died, she said, she called detectives for two weeks straight, even providing the names of potential suspects.

“It didn’t matter. They called it hearsay,” Wilson said. “I feel like I know who murdered my son.”

MPD stated that it continues to seek suspects in Javon’s homicide.

‘There’s no stopping them’

Janice Gorden, who founded the organization, Victims of Milwaukee Violence Burial Fund, 10 years ago, said it’s common for mothers to conduct their own investigations in their loved one’s murder.

“Sometimes they have way more information than the detectives do,” she said.

Sadly, she said, many become consumed with trying to solve the murder themselves.

“They drive themselves crazy trying to find answers to who killed their loved one,” she said. “I try to help but I can’t. I just listen to people like that because there’s no helping them. There’s no stopping them.”

Since Javon’s death, Wilson said she’s gone through thousands of emotions, one of them being severe depression. Her mother, who helped raise Javon, her first grandson, is equally devastated. Javon also had a special bond with his little brother Shamus, who’s 8 years old.

Shamus keeps a large cutout of Javon’s high school graduation photo in his bedroom and even grew out his hair to mimic his brother’s dreadlock hairstyle. Wilson said Shamus has struggled with anger issues since his big brother was killed.

“He doesn’t know how to adjust his emotions,” she said. “It’s been a very downward spiral for all of us.”

‘I never knew it would happen to me’

Like Wilson, Brenda Hines knows the pain of losing a son to gun violence.

Her middle child, Donovan, 23, was shot and killed while driving a car near North 29th Street and West Hampton Avenue in 2017. His case also remains unsolved.
Hines said Donovan was never afraid to travel somewhere new without a plan other than to make it. She said she isn’t sure whether her son was killed in an ongoing dispute over a car or whether it stemmed from a woman.

“I know there were people at the funeral home and at his vigil who knew,” she said.

Hines has worked as a Salvation Army chaplain since 2014, heading to crime scenes to help other families deal with tragic incidents such as murders.

“I never knew it would happen to me,” she said.

Since Donovan’s death, she’s turned her pain into action, opening the Donovan Hines Foundation of Exuberance to honor her son and to help other families by providing mental health, grief counseling and other support.

She also hosts an annual vigil to honor homicide victims in Milwaukee, part of a national series of events. Many of the families she’s met along the way are also waiting for justice for their loved one’s murders.

“It really tears the family apart,” she said. “It’s like an open wound that is still bleeding. The tears flow every day.”

Hines says she can’t tell families she knows exactly how they feel.

“Every situation is different. But, I can tell them I understand,” she said.

Solving murders

James Hutchinson, captain of the Milwaukee Police Department’s Homicide Division, said his team of 33 detectives remains committed to solving a case even as the days grow into years.

“If someone comes in and says we have info on something that happened five years ago, we’ll take that info and follow up,” he said. “From the first two weeks, to a month, or months or years down the line, we’re equally as committed to solving a murder as we were today.”

Many families, such as those of Hines’ and Wilson’s, question whether every stone gets turned in an investigation.

“I don’t know if they did their due diligence,” Wilson said. “I don’t know if they care.”

Hines, who has worked closely with officers during her time as a chaplain, said she respects the challenges police officers face.

“They don’t have enough evidence,” she said.

Still, she can’t help but feel that more could have and should be done.

“I’ve met personally with detectives because they won’t call back,” she said. “It’s a bad process.”

Though it may not be much solace to the hundreds of families in Milwaukee still hoping for justice, Hutchinson said he and the detectives in his unit take each case personally.

They know that the victim’s family and friends are devastated by their loved one’s murder.

“It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “Making a death notification is one of the hardest parts of this job.”

Hutchinson said resources in his department were spread thin when murders exploded in the city during the pandemic, which increased the challenge of building a case.

The biggest challenge, though, he said, is that witness cooperation isn’t what it used to be.

“It’s changed for the worse,” Hutchinson said. “There wasn’t a no snitching campaign back then.”

Wilson admits that witnesses to her son’s murder were reluctant to talk to police. She tracked down suspects on her own and offered those names to officers. That wasn’t enough to warrant charges, police told her. She needed her son’s friends to step up.

“At this point y’all should tell what happened,” she told them. “Somebody needs to be held responsible.”

How Milwaukee compares nationally

Thomas Hargrove, founder of the Murder Accountability Project, the largest database of unsolved murders in America, said Milwaukee homicide clearance rates are similar to what he saw nationally, especially during the pandemic.

Many cities have struggled to solve murders since then. Part of the challenge is resources.

“When you have enough resources, good things happen. When you don’t, bad things happen,” Hargrove said. “When you have over 200 murders, your system is off.”

He also said it’s also much harder to get a conviction now than it was 20-years-ago, which can create friction between the district attorney’s office and local police.

Although police might make an arrest in a homicide case, that doesn’t mean that charges will be filed.

Police, Hutchinson said, only need probable cause to make an arrest. The burden of proof at the district attorney’s office, which files homicide charges, is higher.

“They have to be able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. “Many times we will make an arrest for probable cause, but we can’t get to that level.”

What often happens, Hutchinson said, is that officers will bring a case to the DA’s office or discuss what evidence they have and then have a dialogue about whether more is needed to file charges.

While that can bring some frustration, admits Hutchinson, it is better than arresting the wrong person.

“My worst nightmare I would have in the world is to have the wrong person held accountable for a crime,” he said.

Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern, acknowledges that the work to hold someone accountable for murder can be burdensome on families seeking justice.

“Obviously there is a significant gap between the evidence needed to make an arrest versus the evidence needed to successfully prosecute a case,” Lovern said.

The reason for caution and continued dialogue with officers in hopes of building a strong case is because there’s no room for error.

“We really have one opportunity with a particular suspect to bring forward charges, and we want to get it right. Not only for the person charged, but the victim’s family and the integrity of the system,” he said.

Regardless, said Hargrove, the more murders that remain unsolved, the worse it is for everyone.

“The more murders you clear, the more murderers you get off the street, the more the murder rate will go down,” he said.

Trying to move on

As Hines reflects on the ripple effect her son’s murder has had on her family, she does the only thing she can to maintain hope.

“I have to have the peace of God,” she said. “He has taken care of the situation. I still get angry but I have to let God take control.”

Meanwhile, Wilson, who still talks to Javon’s friends regularly, visits his grave monthly, and she threw him a huge birthday bash in May.

She wonders whether it’s time to put away some of his photos. Among them are large poster boards filled with pictures that were on display during Javon’s funeral.

“I have to admit it is kind of depressing,” she said. “But it makes me feel like he’s still here with me.”

For more information

Anyone with any information about murders is asked to contact Milwaukee police at (414) 935-7360. If you wish to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at (414) 224-TIPS (8477).

Hargrove urges families of those whose murders have not been solved to request a formal review under the Homicide Victims’ Families’ Right Act.

It allows for an individual to request federal agencies conduct a review of a homicide case investigation to determine whether it warrants a reinvestigation.