In the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, February 1, 2014, firefighters responding to a blaze in a vacant building in the 5300 block of Queens Avenue in Walnut Park East found the body of 19-year-old Aarion Termalewil Sparkman. He was so badly burned that he was initially unrecognizable. A subsequent examination at the morgue showed Aarion had been shot multiple times in the head, chest, and leg; the fire did not cause his death and the case was turned over to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s homicide division.

Walnut Park East was described as a neighborhood with a high violent-crime rate and numerous vacant buildings, conditions noted in coverage of the city’s difficult 2014 homicide year. Detectives opened an investigation, but no suspects or persons of interest were publicly announced and key questions about Aarion’s last hours — who he was with and why he was at the vacant building — appear unresolved.

Anyone who knew Aarion, saw him in north St. Louis around February 1, 2014, or has information about activity at the Queens Avenue property is asked to come forward.