On a summer morning in August 2018 a passing motorist found the body of 38-year-old Shafequa Cooper of Irvington, New Jersey, on Krotik Place near the old Irvington General Hospital. She had sustained multiple gunshot wounds, and investigators from the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide/Major Crimes Task Force determined the killing did not occur where her body was found.

The investigation located the scene of the homicide in neighboring Orange, at Valley Street and Argyle Avenue, and classified the death as an Orange homicide. Reports noted this was at least the second time a homicide victim from another locality had been left in Irvington.

Within a month investigators identified a suspect. On September 18, 2018 the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office announced the arrest of 37-year-old Darren Black of East Orange; he was taken into custody in Princeton and charged with murder, concealment and removing human remains, illegal possession of a weapon, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. Is there anyone who knew Shafequa or who might have seen activity around Valley Street and Argyle Avenue that August morning?