RICHMOND, Va. — The family of a man who was killed on Richmond's Northside is holding out hope for a break in the cold case more than two decades after his murder.
Thomas Winston Carter, known as Tommy, was found shot to death behind a house near Garland Avenue around 9:45 a.m. on Dec. 22, 2001. That is in the Northern Barton Heights neighborhood and not far from Battery Park.
"We still need to know exactly what happened," family member Gloria Piercy told Jon Burkett.
After he was shot multiple times, Carter's body was dragged from a fence to where it was found, according to Piercy.
Carter's mother, who passed away at the age of 97 in the summer of 2024, asked her family to continue helping police find his killer.
"For 23 years she had been waiting to find out who murdered her son," Piercy said. "Out of all the detectives that worked on her case, everybody kept saying, 'We are working on it...' But we never got any kind of closure on that part."
Detective Sgt. George Wade with the Richmond Police Cold Case Unit believes there may be multiple suspects in Carter's murder.
"We're right on the edge of it. We do have some suspects that we would like to vet out the information that we have," Wade said.
Wade also said Carter's minivan was taken to the Hawthorne Avenue area. That is where two people were seen leaving in the van and then torching the vehicle.
Officers are still looking for information and hope that someone in the area knows something that can help.
"People in the early years are scared to talk to police or see things that they believe are not very important," Wade said. "But we're asking anybody that knew anything about Tommy or about this case to come forward and give us those bits and pieces of information."
If you have information that could help detectives, call Crime Stoppers at 804-780-1000 or submit a tip online at https://rvacrimestoppers.org. The P3 Tips Crime Stoppers app for smartphones may also be used. All three Crime Stoppers methods of contact are anonymous.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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