April 2022 | Issue #4
Someone knows something that could help
detectives solve young mother’s homicide

Lamonica Myers was a young mother of two.
She was 16 years old when her first son was born. A second boy came a year later. Her Facebook page showed she was a typical user of social media.
           
Now 20 she lived in a flat at the Pendleton Place Apartment complex on Pendleton Street near Lamar Avenue in south Memphis.
           
She used a babysitter to take care of her children much of the time. That person picked up the boys the middle of the week in March, 2021. When the babysitter didn’t hear from Myers for several days after that, she drove to the apartment complex and entered the apartment.
           
She found Myers on the floor. She had been beaten to death. It was March 2, 2021.
           
“The last time everybody heard from her was last Wednesday. No one heard from her since then,” the woman’s long-time friend Bre’anna Allen told a reporter at Fox13 news. “The babysitter went to her house to bring her children home and came into that!”
           
Investigators need help piecing together the woman’s movements — and people she may have seen — in the days leading up to the discovery of her body. The murder technically is a cold case. Statistical averages would suggest she knew whoever killed her.
           
We are spotlighting dozens of Memphis cold cases going back more than a decade. Read about them here.
Sometimes ‘talk on the street’ can lead
to a break in an unsolved cold case
      
Felony crime cases are worked by detectives until leads are exhausted and information is no longer forthcoming. After a review, such cases may be officially designated as “cold.”
           
Although most cold cases are at least a year old, the actual timing is determined by the review process. Yet the cases don’t necessarily lie dormant. The Memphis Police Department, like many big-city police forces, has a Cold Case Unit with investigators assigned to the older and unsolved crimes.
           
Cases are reviewed for their potential for being solved, then new evidence is sought. This can happen through a review of the case file, re-interview of witnesses, discovery of new witnesses, and even through technology.
           
Detectives work numerous cold cases at the same time, often as a team.
           
Victims’ families — or other interested parties — sometimes may come forward months or years later with new information picked up “on the street” or through other means. When some new piece of information surfaces, it is important to let investigators know.  
           
The Cold Case Hotline can be reached at 901-636-COLD (2653) or by email at ColdCase@memphistn.gov. Detectives ask that callers provide name, phone number and a brief message on which case they are calling about.
           
Anyone with information also can help by contacting CrimeStoppers anonymously at (901) 528-CASH.
Make a donation here and help CrimeStoppers help the MPD's Cold Case Unit.