EVANSVILLE — The Evansville Police Department’s renewed call for information in the killing of Larry Meriweather Jr. may have been brief — a single paragraph on Facebook with a phone number to call for tips in a nearly six-year-old cold case.
But for Latona Meriweather, Larry’s sister, it marked what she hopes could be a turning point in her family’s years-long quest for justice.
“Anything helps,” Latona said of the department’s post, which as of Friday afternoon had been shared more than 320 times and elicited dozens of comments. “We’re grateful for the help we can get. It’s never too late. People solve murders 10 years, 20 years later, you know.”
The department’s May 11 Facebook post — asking anyone with information to contact the Adult Investigation Unit or Detective Adam Stepro — is the most public attention the case has received in years. Not all of the public comments on the post voiced praise for investigators, who have yet to make an arrest in connection with Meriweather Jr.’s shooting at a crowded house party in the early morning hours of May 26, 2020.
The star North Huskies football player, who finished his career with the fifth-most rushing yards in school history, was a proud father to his daughter, Malana. He was 30 years old when he took his final breath at an Evansville hospital on May 27, 2020, succumbing to multiple gunshot wounds.
In the agonizing years since, Meriweather Jr.’s family told the Courier & Press they heard little from the detectives tasked with finding out who killed their son, brother, uncle and father to a now seven-year-old daughter who sometimes says her father visits her in dreams.
“Why didn’t you follow the leads you had in 2020?” one commenter lamented underneath the Evansville Police Department’s Facebook post. “These unsolved cases all have one thing in common. A black victim. God forbid you solve one of their cases.”
Latona is aware of the comments. She understands the frustration. She’s lived it for 2,182 grueling days and nights. But she doesn’t have much room in her heart for cynicism. At least not yet, when she still sees reasons for hope.
“It’s 2026 now,” Latona said, reflecting on her belief that her brother’s case is one tip, one lead, one confession away from being solved. “It’s different detectives. The mayor’s different. And I think we might have a detective who wants to really find out what happened.”
With regard to the Facebook post — the negative comments notwithstanding — “I just thank him for saying something about it,” Latona said. “I think (Detective Stepro) really cares. I hope it leads in the right direction.”
A running back and a father
To hear his former coach tell it, Larry Meriweather was the kind of player coaches spend careers waiting for.
A North High School running back and linebacker in the mid-2000s, he earned all-city honors both ways. His former coach, Mike Wilson, who had known Larry since fifth grade, remembered him to the Courier & Press days after his killing.
“He was always a real happy, laughing kid,” Wilson said. “He just loved to play football. Larry was one of the best all-around players ever at North High School.”
After graduation, Meriweather moved on from the game. By 2020, he was a father — his daughter was not yet a year old — and was working toward a career in music. He had just turned 30 eight days before he died.
His daughter is 6 now. Latona makes sure she knows her father’s face.
“I make sure, when I get her, that she knows,” Latona said. “She knows his name and everything. You’ve got to keep that embedded in them.”
“We need some closure,” she said. “We need to know what happened. Who did it. And why.”
A party, a shooting, a case gone cold
Meriweather Jr.’s family described the scene of his killing as a crowded house party at 104 West Oregon Street. Many attendees were armed. Meriweather Jr.’s family said he carried a gun the night he was shot down, though they maintain he possessed a permit and exercised his right to bear arms in self defense.
At 1:40 a.m. on May 26, 2020, Evansville-Vanderburgh Central Dispatch directed officers to the party after callers reported hearing between six and seven shots. First responders found Meriweather Jr. with gunshot wounds to the chest and torso. He was transported to Deaconess Hospital, where he later died.
In the immediate aftermath, EPD spokesman Sgt. Nick Winsett asserted police had little to go on.
“No one at the party wanted to come forward with many details,” he said at the time.
By November 2020, leads had “slowed down drastically,” EPD Detective Jackie Lowe told reporters at a news conference in which the department again appealed for public tips. No suspects were named.
In a written statement to the Courier & Press May 7 in response to questions about the case and subsequent investigation, Sgt. Anthony Aussieker said two detectives had been assigned to the case over the years, with reassignments occurring as lead investigators transferred to other units. Aussieker said the case remains open and active.
Latona describes the years since her brother’s killing as a deafening silence. The family has heard names circulating “in the streets” — people who were known to be with Meriweather Jr. the night of the fateful party, people she believes know what happened. She has shared what she knows with detectives. She does not know what has been done with it.
“At the time, so many people were calling in, telling them information,” she said in an interview May 8, before the department’s Facebook post went live. “What people were knowing and hearing. It seemed like they just weren’t trying to do anything.”
“I can’t even grieve right”
Meriweather’s killing came during a devastating stretch of gun violence in Evansville. Ten people were killed in the city between late May and late June 2020 alone. His name was invoked that summer at local anti-violence rallies, where organizers insisted that accountability for gun violence had to extend beyond headlines — that a life lost at a house party deserved the same urgency as any other.
By the end of 2020, his case was one of seven unsolved homicides in the city that year.
His family is still living in that unresolved moment.
“All his sisters, we’re all depressed,” Latona said. “We can’t even grieve right. Because I don’t have any closure.”
His birthday is May 18. He was killed May 26. Words fall short of describing the pain those eight days wreak with annual regularity.
Meriweather Jr.’s mother, Camelia Meriweather, says she has made her peace — or tried to. She has forgiven the person, or persons, who killed her son. But forgiveness, she is clear, is not the same as absolution.
“I forgive you what you have done,” she told the Courier & Press. “But you need to go ahead and deal with the consequences of what you have done.”
“Leave a tip”
Larry Meriweather Jr. would have turned 36 this month.
Latona’s message to anyone who knows something is focused on achieving closure above all else. She understands not everyone is willing to talk to the police. For those who can’t bring themselves to sit eye to eye with an officer or detective, Latona has a direct plea: say something to someone. Anyone. A tip line.
“You don’t have to feel comfortable going to the police,” Latona said. “Come tell one of us — one of his sisters, his parents. Leave a tip. Because we know what’s going on.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Evansville Police Department’s Adult Investigation Unit at 812-436-7979 or Detective Adam Stepro at 812-436-7986.
Houston Harwood may be contacted at houston.harwood@courierpress.com
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: ‘We can’t even grieve’: Evansville family still waiting for justice
Reporting by Houston Harwood, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
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