Gary Carrier Jr., 44, was shot and killed while standing outside a Go-Mart on Charleston’s West Side on the night of August 10, 2003. He had been talking on a pay telephone shortly before 11:30 p.m. when a single gunshot struck him in the head; the wound proved fatal at the scene. The shot appeared to have been fired from a considerable distance and initially offered no obvious motive; Carrier’s family described him as gentle and nonviolent and said he worked long days at Pendleton’s Charleston Tire shop, repaired lawn equipment for friends, was divorced with four children, and treasured a modified Chevrolet Camaro.

Four nights later two other people were shot in similar circumstances, and ballistics testing linked a .22-caliber rifle to all three killings. Investigators pursued tips, interviewed witnesses who reported seeing a dark-colored extended-cab pickup, and released a composite of a person seen nearby. In 2011 Shawn Thomas Lester was arrested and later indicted on three counts of first-degree murder; prosecutors said ballistic evidence most strongly tied Lester to Patton’s death and that ballistics provided the principal connection to Carrier and Meadows.

Did anyone on Charleston’s West Side in August 2003 see a dark-colored extended-cab pickup or remember anyone lingering near the Go-Mart pay phone that night?