Police say Griffith’s death was a targeted attack and that he likely knew his killers. But in the year and a half since, police have made no arrests and the case has gone cold.
Stumped for clues, Dallas police are turning to social media for help with cold cases like Griffith’s — posting video interviews with detectives to the department’s blog and Facebook page.
They hope that renewing public interest in the cases will prompt someone to come forward with information to crack them.
Homicide detective Eric Barnes asked that Griffith’s case be featured online. It will be the fourth such video posted.
“We can’t solve these cases without the help of the public,” Barnes said.
Earnest and Evelyn Griffith regularly check in with Barnes about their son’s case. They say the pain and anger has subsided, but they still want to know who killed their son and why.
The couple recently recorded a video with the detective for the department’s blog. They hope that a witness will come forward, even if that person is afraid.
“It’s not snitching when you’re trying to get someone off the street that actually needs to be off the street, because it could be your family member next,” Earnest Griffith Sr. says in the video.
Griffith Jr. and his wife were parked at Sunnyvale Station convenience store around 7:30 p.m. Aug. 15, 2013, when two men approached their 2002 Ford F-150 SuperCrew pickup. Griffith was shot in the head. His wife was shot in the upper body.
He was pronounced dead at the scene, hours before he turned 41.
Birthdays and holidays are especially hard for families grieving over unsolved cases, Barnes said. It’s no different with the Griffiths.
“It’s a very tough case, especially around the holidays when I speak to his mother and his father, not being able to answer that question, why would someone kill their son?” he said.
Sharhonda Griffith was able to give police only a limited description of the suspects. Even with a $5,000 reward offered through Crime Stoppers, no one has provided police with more information.
“I do think that there’s someone out there that knows more about this offense,” Barnes said. “Whether it’s a small piece of information that may seem irrelevant to someone else, it may turn out being the break that I need to solve this case.”
Griffith’s friends and family called him “Dennie” or “D” for short.
“He never met any strangers,” Evelyn Griffith said. “He was just an outgoing person.”
“He always had jokes,” Earnest Griffith Sr said. And the son always came up with better birthday presents for his mother than his father did.
Both parents say they miss their son’s regular visits to them. But they said that what they miss most is the sound of his voice.
“If I’d only had a recording of his voice,” Earnest Griffith Sr. said tearfully during an interview. “As time goes on, you realize, I can’t hear him no more.”
There are no guidelines for what makes a case “cold.”
Some cases get that way in a matter of days after detectives have exhausted all possible leads. Others take a little bit longer to investigate, said Maj. Jeff Cotner of the crimes against persons division.
There are 20 detectives who investigate homicides, and they typically each get about six new cases a year. On average, they make arrests in nearly 60 percent of the cases, leaving about 40 percent of slayings unsolved every year, Cotner said.
But those killings are seldom forgotten or even out of sight. Most of the detectives have binders containing files for each case stored at their desks. Each binder has a different colored spine to show which year the crime occurred.
The detectives will read through the files again from time to time looking for anything they might’ve missed. And anytime there’s new DNA or fingerprint technology, the cases are tested again, Cotner said.
But new tips are what most often lead to an arrest and that’s why investigators want to use the department’s website to keep the crimes in the spotlight. The still-unsolved slaying of D’Lisa Kelley last March was the first cold case video Dallas police posted. The 24-year-old pregnant mother was found dead inside a vacant east Oak Cliff house a week after she was reported missing.
The videos let the public know that detectives haven’t given up on solving a homicide.
“We just need a little help,” Cotner said.
©2015 The Dallas Morning News
