On March 27, 2018, officers from the Springfield Police Department were called to the 1000 block of West Florida Street shortly after noon and found 30-year-old Lance E. Loveless dead inside an abandoned vehicle parked in the backyard of a home. Initial observations indicated he had sustained a fatal gunshot wound; an autopsy was ordered and the investigation was treated as a homicide.

Investigators later linked Loveless’s killing to a second fatal shooting five days later. Authorities say the suspect, Willie Haughton, met Loveless recently and killed him with the primary intent of stealing his firearm; prosecutors say that weapon was then used in the subsequent slaying. Haughton was tracked using GPS data from a monitoring device and taken into custody after a multi-day manhunt.

If anyone knew Lance, saw him around March 27, 2018, or has information about who he was with before his death, please come forward.