On the evening of April 5, 2016, Kimberly M. Miles, 26, was found dead in the yard behind a vacant home in the 2600 block of Denver Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri. The next day would have been her 27th birthday. The Kansas City Police Department quickly ruled her death a homicide, but public reports conflict about the mechanism of death: some accounts say blunt force trauma, while several contemporaneous news stories report she was fatally shot. Her killing was counted as the city’s 24th homicide that year.

Detectives canvassed the neighborhood and conducted numerous interviews after the discovery. Officials issued a public appeal and offered a reward for information leading to an arrest. Some people were identified and questioned as persons of interest in the months after the homicide, but no arrests were announced and the investigation later grew cold. The case remains open and unsolved.

If anyone has information about Kimberly’s last movements or the circumstances around April 5, 2016, please contact the Kansas City Police Department’s tip line.