Jessie Buford was a 23-year-old Middle Tennessee State University student when he was shot and killed on the afternoon of May 4, 2017, at the Student Quarters Apartments on Greenland Drive in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. His family described him as a happy, humble business major, an aspiring local rapper and the creator of a clothing line; he is survived by seven siblings.

Investigators quickly focused on a single suspect, 20-year-old Lammoris Ontrel Jones, a onetime friend and former roommate of Buford. Jones was arrested two days after the shooting after being located west of Jackson, Tennessee, and was charged with first-degree murder. Testimony at a June 2017 preliminary hearing said Jones took the murder weapon to a cousin’s home in Mississippi after the shooting, and reports indicated the encounter may have been captured on video.

The case did not go to a jury trial. In October 2020, Lammoris Jones entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 26 years in prison for Buford’s murder. Did anyone in the Murfreesboro or MTSU community have contact with Jessie in the days before May 4, 2017?