Charles E. Nichols, 37, was killed in Syracuse, New York, in the spring of 2018 in what investigators described as a shooting connected to a dispute over $25. Nichols, who worked in construction and plumbing and was remembered as outgoing and friendly, was found days after the shooting outside a vacant house; his body had been moved twice in efforts to conceal the crime.

Authorities charged Vladimir Brown in connection with the case and prosecutors said the dispute with Nichols escalated to a fatal shooting. Nicolas Costello later admitted helping move the body and pleaded guilty to his role. At trial in February 2019, a jury acquitted Brown of murder but convicted him of two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, concealment of a human corpse, and tampering with physical evidence. The court imposed consecutive sentences for the concealment and tampering convictions, and an appeal of that judgment was affirmed.

Who in the Syracuse area might have known Nichols, witnessed the dispute, or seen activity around the vacant house where his body was left?