On the evening of October 15, 1996, 39-year-old Melvin Franklin was shot in the chest and killed while walking the last few blocks to his home on Woodrow Avenue in Dorchester after getting public transportation from his job as a skycap at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Reports say Franklin, described as someone willing to help others, may have intervened in a robbery or assault and was struck just short of his house. His wife Mary and their children were at home when she later received a call from Boston City Hospital and went there to find he had died.

No arrests or publicly identified suspects have been reported and the investigation has gone cold. Mary Franklin later became an advocate for families of homicide victims. The identity of whoever shot Melvin Franklin remains unknown.

Did anyone in Dorchester that night see Melvin or the incident, or have information that could help his family find answers?