KeAira Battle was 27 when her body was found in the parking lot of Elmore Community Hospital in Wetumpka, Alabama, in the early morning hours of June 19, 2020. Medical investigators determined she died from a gunshot wound, and evidence indicated she had been shot while sitting in her vehicle in the 5400 block of Wares Ferry Road in Montgomery, about 13 miles away.

Wetumpka police said they had identified a suspect within 12 hours, but the location of the shooting created a jurisdictional dispute with the Montgomery Police Department; after talks involving both counties’ district attorneys and police chiefs, the agencies agreed to a joint investigation. On July 6, 2020, the U.S. Marshals fugitive task force arrested 39-year-old James Burton Dunn and charged him with capital murder; he was held without bond as the case moved through the legal system.

In August 2023 the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the capital murder charge against James Burton Dunn, citing new evidence and saying the office would not pursue a case where the evidence is insufficient. The DA said he would ask the Montgomery Police Department to reopen the homicide investigation. The murder of KeAira Battle remains unsolved.

Did anyone who knew KeAira or who was in the Wares Ferry Road or Wetumpka areas on June 19, 2020, see or hear anything that could help investigators?