Micah Tyler Burdette was 20 when his body was found by hikers in St. Albans City Park on September 9, 2014. A preliminary autopsy the next day classified his death as a homicide from a fatal gunshot wound to the head. Burdette grew up locally, graduated from St. Albans High School in 2013, and had played football and baseball and taken acting classes; his obituary described a close, large family left grieving his sudden loss.

Investigators said Burdette and a 24-year-old man, Michael Benbow of Huntersville, North Carolina, had arranged to meet in the park in connection with a drug transaction. Police arrested Benbow on September 12 and initially charged him with first-degree murder. Benbow later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and a recidivist enhancement; at a June 2015 sentencing hearing he acknowledged responsibility, described a struggle in which Burdette was shot, and received a total prison term of 20 years. Burdette’s mother spoke at sentencing about the family’s grief and the hope that Benbow would come to understand the harm caused.

Did anyone who knew Micah or saw him in St. Albans around September 2014 have information about his last hours?