On the evening of December 4, 2016, 38-year-old Charlene Ryals, a Navy veteran and nurse, was shot multiple times in her Norfolk, Virginia home on the 500 block of Garren Avenue. Her 9-year-old son made the 911 call; paramedics found Ryals shortly before 8:40 p.m. and she was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where she died of her injuries.

The initial probe produced few leads and the case went cold. A DNA match in June 2019 linked evidence from the scene to Zquan L. Steeps after his DNA entered the system in an unrelated Pennsylvania matter. Steeps was charged with second-degree murder and illegal use of a firearm and was extradited from Pennsylvania in September 2019. In May 2021 prosecutors dropped the charges, saying the available evidence was not sufficient for conviction and that further investigation was needed.

Investigators say a woman knocked at Ryals’ door and another person wearing a mask was involved, but motive and the identities of those other individuals remain unknown. Anyone with information about what happened that night is asked to come forward.