In the spring of 2003, 18-year-old Hillard Head Smith IV was found dead from gunshot wounds in front of an abandoned house in New Orleans, Louisiana. A student at Joseph S. Clark High School, Smith’s killing on the evening of April 7, 2003, is described as a targeted act tied to an ongoing gang-related conflict and believed by some in the community to be retaliation.

Within days friends and family began alleging a connection to a 15-year-old student from John McDonogh High School, Jonathan Caveman Williams, though police had not officially named him a suspect. The cycle of violence escalated a week later when Williams was murdered at school on April 14, 2003, in an attack that led to arrests and convictions for those responsible for that murder.

No arrests or publicly named suspects have been announced in Hillard Smith IV’s killing. Does anyone have information about Smith’s life, his movements that week, or leads that could help resolve this unsolved homicide?