Sarah Shannon, an 88-year-old Black woman, was found murdered in her Baltimore apartment on November 30, 2002. A relative discovered her after she did not answer phone calls. Investigators determined she had been raped and strangled and that valuables were stolen from her unit in the Greenwell Apartments, a facility for elderly and disabled residents.

The case went unsolved for a time because there was no immediate DNA match. Investigators later linked Raymont Hopewell to a string of violent crimes against elderly victims; his mother lived in the same complex, which may have given him familiarity with the building. Hopewell was arrested on September 20, 2005, in connection with another victim, and subsequent DNA testing connected him to Shannon’s killing.

In 2006 Hopewell pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder, including Shannon’s, and four counts of first-degree rape, accepting a plea that spared the death penalty and resulted in life without parole. Families said his apology did not feel sincere, and the case highlighted that Hopewell had not been required to submit a DNA sample during a prior incarceration. Did anyone who lived at Greenwell Apartments in 2002 notice anything unusual around late November that might help fill gaps in the timeline?