James McCallum was 36 when he was fatally stabbed on the night of December 14, 1989, in Northeast Washington, D.C. A construction foreman and father of two who had moved from North Carolina as a teenager, he went to the area of 15th and Isherwood Streets NE to buy cocaine with a friend. After being dropped off near a liquor store, McCallum fled from a man with a large knife and was chased two blocks into a community garden in the 500 block of 17th Street NE, where he was stabbed once in the chest.

His friend put him in the back of a car to take him to the hospital, but McCallum died at D.C. General Hospital at 10:15 a.m. Police initially believed the motive was robbery and had no suspects. The attacker apparently injured himself during the assault, leaving a trail of blood from the garden to an apartment building on the 400 block of 18th Street NE; that evidence later produced a partial DNA profile. The case became the District’s 415th homicide that year, remains open, and a reward of up to $25,000 is offered for information that could lead to an arrest.

Does anyone have information about McCallum, his movements that night, or the 400 block of 18th Street NE that could help resolve this case?