On the morning of August 20, 2008, 20-year-old Fakhur Uddin was found murdered in the back room of his father’s variety store, Rahman Body Oils, Beads and Variety, in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood. Fakhur, a Bangladeshi immigrant and community college student who had helped run the family business since arriving from Bangladesh in 2001, had opened the store alone about 9:30 a.m. His father, Syed Alam, became alarmed after failing to reach him an hour later; police later told Alam his son had been bound with duct tape and shot once in the head.

About $400 was missing from the register, but there were no obvious signs of a struggle and merchandise, including jewelry, was left untouched, prompting questions about whether robbery was the motive. The community offered condolences and support; Alam has continued to operate the store and posted a $4,000 reward, with an additional $1,000 from the Germantown Business Association, for information leading to an arrest and conviction. No arrests have been announced and investigators said a lack of witnesses has hampered the case.

Did anyone who shopped or worked in Germantown around that time notice anything unusual that morning?