Denzel DeMarcus Bates was 21 when he was found dead on September 21, 2016. His body was discovered in the bed of a Dodge pickup truck on Rushton Road in Aiken, South Carolina. The Aiken County Coroner’s Office determined he died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Investigators from the Aiken Department of Public Safety and the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office concluded the shooting occurred at a residence on George Street in the Crosland Park area. In April 2017 three people were arrested: Dawon Jacques Wells, then 19, was charged with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime; Tiffany Nicole Grimes, 40, and Johnny Renard Frazier, 20, were charged as accessories after the fact. Wells was tried twice, in February 2019 and August 2020, but both trials ended in mistrial when juries deadlocked.

In December 2021 prosecutors dropped the murder charge against Wells after a key witness who had testified at the earlier trials refused to testify again; the accessory charges were also reportedly dismissed. Does anyone have information about Bates, his business Cutting Edge Lawn Maintenance, or events in Aiken around September 2016?