Kendra Mercedes Smith was 23 when she was shot on the evening of September 6, 2004, in the 4300 block of D Street SE in Washington, D.C. A Temple University graduate with a degree in communications and business, she was a new mother who had spent Labor Day with family and friends and had talked about possibly moving to California. She was riding in the passenger seat of a car when she was struck; the vehicle’s back window was shattered and numerous shell casings lay on the street. Smith was taken to a hospital in critical condition and died the following day.

The case went cold for years, but a November 2018 re-examination of evidence led detectives and the medical examiner to conclude she had been shot at close range from inside the vehicle. Investigators say the shots from outside the car were staged to mislead the probe. Attention shifted to Tony Aiken, who had ended a relationship with Smith about a month before the shooting and was with her that night; he was arrested and charged with second-degree murder while armed. The case has since proceeded through a series of legal delays and challenges.

If anyone knew Kendra, her last movements, or the people in the car that night, please share what you know.