Maryetta Mercedes Griffin, 39, was found sexually assaulted and strangled in an abandoned garage on Milwaukee’s north side on a February morning in 1998. She struggled with crack addiction and prostitution; the day before her death she had been seen at a local drug house run by a man named William Avery.

Avery was arrested shortly after Griffin’s killing and later convicted on unrelated drug charges. In 2004 he was charged with first-degree reckless homicide based largely on testimony from three jailhouse informants; a jury convicted him in 2005 and he received a 40-year sentence. Avery maintained his innocence.

A 2009 development in other cold cases prompted DNA testing in Griffin’s case. The DNA on her body matched Walter E. Ellis, a man later linked by DNA to multiple Milwaukee murders, and excluded Avery. Avery’s conviction was vacated in May 2010 and he was released. Ellis was convicted of seven other murders and later died in prison; he was never formally charged in Griffin’s death.

Did anyone in Milwaukee know Maryetta or have information about the garage where she was found?