Osean Ham Lockett, a 19-year-old Black man from Detroit, was last seen the evening of July 6, 2015 after his mother dropped him off near a gas station following a shift boarding up vacant houses. For two months his family and friends searched before city workers cleaning a storm sewer found a body on September 5, 2015 that was later identified as Lockett.

The Wayne County Medical Examiner determined he died of multiple gunshot wounds; decomposition suggested the body had been in the sewer for a considerable time. The Detroit Police Department opened a homicide investigation. A witness implicated Michael Ferguson, saying they saw Ferguson, wearing a mask and brass knuckles, attack Lockett from behind, drag him into a backyard, and then gunshots were heard. Police later found a black mask, brass knuckles, and three loaded firearms at Ferguson’s residence.

Ferguson was initially charged with murder but the state prosecutor later dropped that charge; he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and received a two-year state sentence and a separate 105-month federal sentence on an unrelated felon-in-possession case. No one has been convicted for Lockett’s murder and the investigation remains open. Does anyone have information that could help resolve what happened to Osean?