On August 25, 2018, 27-year-old Megan Elizabeth Staats was working as a store clerk at a Cefco gas station in Philadelphia, Mississippi, when a robbery turned deadly. A man later identified as 30-year-old Robert Leon Jackson entered the store, held Staats at gunpoint and fatally shot her.

After Staats was killed, a customer, Jeremy Apperson, confronted the gunman while defending his wife and child. Apperson was shot and killed in an exchange of gunfire in the parking lot. As the suspect attempted to flee, multiple bystanders fired at him; a third person was wounded during the chaos and drove himself to the hospital. Law enforcement located and arrested Robert Leon Jackson in a nearby hotel breezeway shortly after the shootings, and he was charged with capital murder in connection with the deaths of Staats and Apperson.

The violent sequence left a young mother dead and a community reeling. If anyone knew Megan, her routines, or saw the events at the Cefco that day, that information could still be important.