On June 19, 2022, just after midnight at an apartment complex on Lincoln Avenue in Holland, Michigan, an argument escalated and 36-year-old Joseph Roberts was shot nearly a dozen times. Roberts, a Black father who had moved his family from Chicago seeking a safer life and who had aspired to be a firefighter while enjoying stand-up comedy, was found with multiple gunshot wounds and pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators identified 39-year-old Thaddeus Cortrez Wilson as a suspect and issued a warrant charging him with homicide—open murder—and related firearm and drug counts. Wilson fled the state, triggering a manhunt that ended when U.S. Marshals located and arrested him in Williamson County, Illinois, on August 29, 2022. He was extradited to Michigan and later tried; on January 23, 2023, a jury convicted Wilson of first-degree premeditated murder and multiple other charges. On March 18, 2024, Judge Margaret Bakker sentenced Wilson to life without parole for Roberts’ murder, plus additional prison terms for the other convictions.

Roberts’ widow described the deep and nightmarish impact his death had on their family and the painful irony that they had moved to Holland to escape violence. If anyone knew Joseph Roberts, his routines, or the events that night, please share what is known.