Post by Scumhunter on Jun 10, 2018 3:50:37 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: Knoxville TN government website)
From knoxnews.com: (January 2018 article)
James Junior "Jim" Hundley was the "money man," and that was no secret.
When the first of the month rolled around, so would Hundley in his gray pickup truck. The tenants of his small rental houses in Knoxville often paid in cash.
The 78-year-old great-great-grandfather would slide the bills in the front pocket of his button-down shirt. Sometimes, his wife, Sheila, said, he carried around extra money after cashing paychecks for people without bank accounts.
"He liked to help people if he could," Sheila Hundley said. "In fact, that's probably what got him killed."
On Feb. 5, 2010, James Hundley stayed overnight at a house on Mitchell Street he'd been renovating. Police believe two men — armed with a gun and information gleaned from someone else — went there to rob him.
They wanted his money. They took his life.
Nearly eight years later, no one has been charged in the killing. Police believe they know the names of the killers, but lack the evidence and witnesses to put them behind bars.
"We know who did it," said Knoxville Police Department Violent Crimes Investigator Jeff Day. "It may take one person calling in. We have enough other evidence, but we need a little bit more."
The money man
Hundley, a retired steelworker, wasn't wealthy but had enough savings where he could have relaxed for the rest of his life on his cattle farm on Jones Road in Northeast Knox County.
Instead, he kept working — constantly, as he always had — to provide for his sprawling family that included eight children, 14 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.
It was his eldest son's idea to get into the rental property business. Between them, they had a plethora of experience: James Lawson "Jimmy" Hundley had worked for decades installing drywall, whereas James Junior Hundley had a lengthy career constructing buildings across the state.
"Dad's the money man; I'm the maintenance man," Jimmy Hundley, 67, said. "He felt like I had a pretty good idea, and I felt like he would be a good partner."
Three rental houses purchased in 2000 turned into a dozen by 2008. The father-son duo bought property on the cheap, renovated the houses themselves, and rented them out to make whatever profits they could.
Most of the houses were in the low-income neighborhoods Lonsdale and Beaumont, with one in nearby Mechanicsville.
One house was an outlier, isolated from the rest: 1714 Mitchell St. near Ninth Avenue in Northeast Knoxville.
A footprint on the door
Jimmy Hundley drove there just before 8:30 on the morning of Feb. 6, 2010, to meet his father for another day of work. The pair were finishing up the plumbing in the house and were preparing to rent it out. They already had tenants lined up.
The father had slept there on an old mattress in the corner the night before, as he often did while working on his houses, sometimes to guard against vandals and thieves who had stolen copper wire and pipes in the past, sometimes simply because he felt like it.
The son knew something was wrong when he saw the front door slightly ajar, a "big footprint" visible from outside.
"I walked in and there he was," Jimmy Hundley said. "I walked over and touched him. He was cold."
He called E-911. The father had been shot dead and left on the floor of the living room, but the son saw no blood. The inside of the house apparently hadn't been ransacked.
Nothing had been damaged, Jimmy Hundley said — "Just my dad."
Not close enough
A neighbor would later tell police she saw two men in their early 20s — one taller and white, the other shorter and black — leave the Mitchell Street house, get into a car and drive away.
The neighbor was close enough to give "a really good description," but not close enough to be able to pick the men out of a lineup, said Day, the KPD investigator.
The descriptions the neighbor gave matched the men whom investigators already suspected.
Police recovered some physical evidence from the scene, including ammunition, Day said.
"Unfortunately we didn't get enough to make the case for us."
The killers didn't take Hundley's wallet, which his wife said contained $800.
Police believe the killers did steal some cash, but aren't sure how much. Hundley's wife thinks they made off with $1,800 he had stuffed in his shirt pocket after withdrawing it from the bank on Feb. 5.
Other people in Knoxville know about Hundley's killing, Day said. They haven't come forward in seven years.
Someone told the killers Hundley might carry cash, that he might be alone, and that he might be at the Mitchell Street house, Day said.
"They were given information by other people, and these other people know who they are," said the 19-year KPD veteran.
"Those people need to come forward. They're not guilty, but we need to connect those dots."
Waiting
After the funeral, Jimmy Hundley worked with his son-in-law to finish renovating the house where his father was killed. He rented it out, as planned. The tenants lived there for about four years; someone else lives there now.
Time has dulled the pain of loss for Hundley's family, but it hasn't provided closure.
The sharpest part of their grief, Sheila Hundley said, "was the suddenness."
"He was there and then he wasn't. And there was no closure, no rhyme or reason. We were never able to say this happened, this is who is responsible."
The family doubts publicity will unearth answers. But they harbor hope that someone will speak out.
"People are scared," Jimmy Hundley said. "They're scared, I understand that. Still, they should come forward. And I hope they do."
Anyone with information in this case should call the Knoxville Police Department at 865-215-7212.
www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2018/01/02/police-1-tip-could-solve-2010-killing-knoxville-landlord-james-hundley/967305001/
Thoughts? This is a very sad story, and despite police seeming to even basically know who killed Jim Hundley (and it just being a matter of proving it), his case is still listed on the Knoxville government website as one of their police department's unsolved murder cases as of this posting date (6/10/2018): www.knoxvilletn.gov/government/city_departments_offices/police_department/criminal_investigations/unsolved_murder_cases
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