Shelbyon Polk was 19 when his body was found in the front yard of a vacant home on Burd Street in St. Louis during the early hours of Thanksgiving morning, November 23, 2017. He had been shot to death; witnesses reported hearing gunshots around 10:30 p.m. the night before, and police believe the shooting likely occurred on November 22. Shelbyon was a recent graduate of Kirkwood High School and remembered by friends and family as kind and smiling.

His family described him as having no reason to be in that part of the city and not knowing anyone there. No arrests have been announced and the murder remains unsolved. The loss reopened old wounds for the family: Shelbyon’s father had been murdered two years earlier in an unsolved case, and in December 2018 his grandmother Karen Arnold — who had been publicly seeking answers in his death — was herself found murdered, also unsolved. If anyone knew Shelbyon’s movements on November 22 or saw anything on Burd Street that night, please come forward with information.