CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – The Clarksville Police Department (CPD) has teamed up with the local Crime Stoppers organization to seek tips from the public regarding five unsolved murder cases that occurred between April 2017 and January 2018.
All five cases involved fatal shootings.
Although no new information about the cases has been released, detectives hope the public will step up to provide any tips, leads, or information they may have that can bring the suspects closer to justice.
CPD and Crime Stoppers held a news conference Wednesday in an effort to shed new light on these cases and inform the public about Crime Stoppers’ new initiative.
“No one outside of the immediate families wants to bring these perpetrators to justice more than we do,” Clarksville Police Chief Al Ansley said.
Crime Stoppers currently offers rewards of up to $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest in a variety of cases, including homicides. The organization is limited to this monetary amount by the national branch, but hopes to work with business and community leaders to offer more reward money for serious felony convictions.
The new program is likely to be implemented within the next 60 days, according to Vice Chairman Bill Summers and Executive Board Member Deanna McLaughlin. They hope to raise the award amounts to $5,000 or even $10,000 for tips that can help solve murders.
All tips provided to Crime Stoppers are completely anonymous. Tipsters can call, text, or email the organization via its website to provide information and are under no obligation to follow up with detectives or provide any other services should they choose not to.
CPD detectives and Crime Stoppers chose to highlight these five recent murders because the cases are not yet considered cold and have the potential to be solved quickly if more information can be gathered. Police have leads that they are actively following, but no arrests have yet been made.
Commander of CPD’s Special Operations Unit, Captain Dave Crockarell, said the unit is actively pursuing leads with these cases, which he says are “very solvable.”
The first unsolved case is that of Marcellus Flynn, who was shot in the Lincoln Homes area in April 2017 and died of his wounds at the hospital.
In November of 2017, three more fatal shootings occurred within days of each other.
Christopher Lane was found with a gunshot wound to his chest during a home invasion. He later died at the hospital. A photo of a potential suspect was taken from surveillance footage outside the home.
Ray Charles Nelson died at the hospital from his injuries after he was shot on Chapel Street after a possible physical altercation. Video footage of the suspects was obtained by police.
Also in November, Rayquan Hudson was found on the front porch of a Mitchell Street home after he had been shot in the upper body. He later died from his injuries.
In January of this year, Tavon Wilson was found dead from a gunshot wound at a Bennett Drive apartment. Detectives are following leads, but are not currently looking for a specific person.
More info about the cases can be found in the video below:
Sgt. Tim Finley with CPD’s Special Operations Unit (Homicide) said while detectives haven’t ruled out a possible connection among the cases, they also can’t say for sure that there is one.
Finley wants citizens with any sort of knowledge of these cases to bring that information to police or Crime Stoppers.
“Don’t assume that what you know is what we know,” he said.
He also believes the public should be interested in these cases because they are not isolated to just one area, but are spread out across the city.
“It’s their community. They live here,” Finley said.
If you have any information about these murders, you can contact the detectives assigned to the cases (contact info in story links above) or provide an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers here.