Melvin Whitted Jr.

Melvin Eugene Whitted Jr., known to some by the nickname "Pee Wee," was a 55-year-old man whose life was tragically cut short in the winter of 2018. Remembered as a funny person, he was a father and an employee at PS Employment in St. Ann, Missouri. His loss left a void in the lives of his family and all who knew him.

On the afternoon of Friday, December 21, 2018, police in Berkeley, a suburb of St. Louis, received a call that led them to a grim discovery. In the 6800 block of Berkridge Drive, they found Melvin Whitted Jr. inside a parked car. He had been fatally shot in the head. The St. Louis County Police Department immediately launched a homicide investigation into his death.

The investigation into Whitted's murder soon connected his case to a string of similar killings in the area. As detectives delved deeper, they uncovered a disturbing pattern. Just eleven days before Whitted was found, another man, 41-year-old Deandre Moore, had been discovered shot to death in his car on December 10, 2018, at the corner of Barto Drive and New Florissant Road. Less than a month later, on January 11, 2019, the body of 68-year-old Kenneth Alvern Linzie was found in a detached garage in Calverton Park. He, too, had been shot and killed inside his car.

The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis, working with the Calverton Park Police Department, identified a single suspect in the deaths of Moore and Linzie: Jeffrey E. Tod, a 53-year-old resident of Calverton Park. Investigators determined that both Moore and Linzie had been shot in their cars while parked in the driveway of Tod's home on Williams Boulevard. Eyewitnesses reported seeing Tod driving both victims' vehicles around the times of their deaths.

A crucial piece of evidence linked all three homicides. Ballistics analysis confirmed that the bullets recovered from the bodies of Whitted, Moore, and Linzie were all fired from the same pistol, which was found in Tod's home during a search. Police also learned that all three victims had been in contact with Tod shortly before they were killed. An acquaintance of Tod told investigators that when asked about Whitted's disappearance, Tod had replied, "he ain’t coming back." After the deaths of Whitted and Moore became public, the same acquaintance heard Tod say, "they had what was coming to them."

Based on the mounting evidence, Jeffrey Tod was arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action in the deaths of Deandre Moore and Kenneth Linzie. He was held without bond. In August 2022, Tod, then 56, pleaded guilty to these charges. A judge sentenced him to 23 years in prison for each murder count and three years for each armed criminal action count, with the sentences to be served concurrently.

While Tod was convicted for the murders of Moore and Linzie, the charges connected to the death of Melvin Whitted Jr. remained pending as of August 2022. The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office has not released further updates on the status of that case. The investigation into Whitted's death is officially considered ongoing, leaving his family still waiting for full closure and justice. Anyone with information regarding the case is encouraged to contact the St. Louis County Police Department at 636-529-8210.