Richard Glenn

Do you know who killed 34 year old Richard Tyrone Glenn in 1991?
Richard Tyrone Glenn, a 34-year-old African-American man, was a hardworking taxi driver trying to make a living in Charlotte, North Carolina. For two years, he had been behind the wheel of his cab, supporting his family. His son, Tyrone Glenn, was just six years old at the time of his father's death and remembers the devastating phone call that shattered his family's world.

In the early morning hours of November 17, 1991, Richard Glenn picked up a passenger. The drop-off location was on Rodney Avenue in north Charlotte. What transpired during that fare remains unclear, but it ended in tragedy. Police found Glenn's taxi wrecked, having veered off the road and struck a tree. He had been shot twice in the head. Investigators determined that Glenn had also been robbed; his wallet and money were missing.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) responded to the scene, and an investigation into the homicide began. Witnesses reported seeing two suspects, described as young Black men, running away from the taxi after the shooting. Despite questioning several people, the trail eventually went cold. The cab company had no record of the fare, leaving investigators with very few leads to pursue. For years, the case languished, and the identity of the killer or killers remained a mystery.

Sgt. Darrell Price of the CMPD described the case as particularly senseless, stating, "This was a good young man, who was working for a living. He’s trying to do right, and someone who’s too lazy to work, shoots him and kills him." The lack of resolution was a heavy burden for Glenn's family, who were left to wonder what happened and who was responsible for taking Richard from them.

Decades passed, but the hope for justice never completely faded. In August 2018, nearly 27 years after the murder, the CMPD announced that they were reopening Richard Glenn's cold case. The decision was spurred by advancements in forensic technology, specifically DNA testing. Investigators began to re-examine evidence collected from the 1991 crime scene with the hope that new scientific methods could finally point to a suspect.

The reopening of the case brought a renewed sense of hope to Glenn's family. His sister, Carol Thompson, expressed the family's long-held pain and their desperate need for answers. "It’s hard because we need some kind of closure," she said. "This has been almost 27 years, and we’re still wondering, what’s going on." The family visited the site of the murder for the first time, a poignant moment as they awaited news from the renewed investigation.

As of the latest reports in August 2018, the investigation into Richard Glenn's murder is active and ongoing. The results of the DNA testing have not been publicly released, and no arrests have been made. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department continues to seek information from the public that could help solve this decades-old crime.

A reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest in the case. Anyone with information is urged to call Charlotte Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600 or Detective Rice at 704-336-2358. Richard Glenn's family continues to wait for the closure they have sought for more than three decades, hoping that someone will come forward and finally bring his killer to justice.