Jackson Free Press

Family members of Jason Murphy and A.J. Barber, and residents of the Virden Addition are still looking for answers about the boys' murders on July 21. Jackson police investigators may soon be able to provide some.

"We are positive that we have leads about those who were involved," Jackson Police Chief Lindsey Horton told the Jackson Free Press Aug. 2. "I feel pretty strongly about that."

An early morning walker discovered the bodies of Murphy and Barber lying in a ditch near the corner of Redmond Avenue and Gun Street. Each young man had been shot in the back, but it has remained unclear how many individuals were involved in the shootings.

Murphy, 16, and Barber, 17, were best friends who attended different high schools. The closeness of their friendship added to the grief of loved ones. It also prompted neighbors to rally. Four days after the killings, more than 300 people from the neighborhood, including Murphy's and Barber's families as well as community leaders, gathered near Walton Elementary School to celebrate the short lives of both young men, and to call on neighbors to help police solve the murders.

"He was a good person in the community. Never said a curse word, never cursed me. God blessed my son, and I don't know why he's gone," Barber's father, Albert Barber Sr. said at the vigil.

Cherry Abron, a cousin to Murphy, described him as a child who enjoyed playing basketball with kids in the in neighborhood.

"My cousin was a very respectful young man," Abron said during the vigil.

Even though Virden Addition has a reputation as one of the capital city's toughest neighborhoods, it has the fewest number of total violent and property crimes of the city's four police precincts.

Note: This story has been edited to reflect a correction. An earlier version misstated the date on which the murders took place.