‘I want justice’: Victim’s mother asks whether son’s murder will get fresh look from KCKPD
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When Vicki Ford heard the news that four cold case homicides had recently been solved in Kansas City, Kansas, she thought of her son, Delvin Matthews, whose 1998 killing remains unsolved.
Ford is now among relatives of dozens of victims who hope their loved one’s unsolved homicides will get renewed attention after the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department announced detectives in its recently formed cold case unit solved four killings, one of which dated back to the 1970s.
It had been unclear how exactly the unit was prioritizing case reviews, so police spokesperson Nancy Chartrand provided additional information to The Star this week.
Each unsolved killing in KCK — more than 280 — has received an initial review by the unit, which was created in early 2022, Chartrand said. Each case was then added to a master spreadsheet, with a synopsis of basic information, pertinent details and answers to questions like: Was there physical evidence? Was the case submitted to prosecutors for potential charges but declined?
“Every case file has been opened up,” she said Tuesday after visiting with the unit’s captain, calling its members “very dedicated and driven to clearing these cases.”
Members of the unit attended a cold case training through the International Homicide Investigators Association, where they learned best practices for approaching decades-old cases, Chartrand said. In general, she said, the association teaches that killings of women and children first need to be addressed because they tend to have more DNA evidence available for testing.
Among other things, detectives also look for information like if there was a suspect identified at the time of the homicide, but their DNA was not yet in the system.
At a press conference last month, Police Chief Karl Oakman said the unit had identified suspects in 11 cold homicide cases.
“We are going to work cases with possible identified suspects, physical evidence and witnesses that are still living,” said Oakman, who was sworn in in June 2021. “Those cases take precedent.”
The unit has so far solved four killings: that of an infant found in a dumpster in 1976, though the suspect has died; the 1997 shooting of a teenage boy, whose alleged killer confessed while in hospice at a Kansas prison; and the homicides of two women in the ‘90s.
A former over-the-road truck driver, Gary Davis, was charged in the killings of the women, Christina King and Pearl Barnes, who also went by Sameemah Musawwir.
Detectives suspect that Davis killed other women. They have sent his DNA for testing in two additional homicides, police told The Star. His lawyer declined to comment at a brief hearing Tuesday in Wyandotte County District Court.
Davis was allegedly tied to the two women’s killings through DNA. In one of the homicides, though, police had that physical evidence as far back as 2003, The Star reported last month.
KCKPD expects additional charges to come out of cold cases worked by the unit, which remains the only one of its kind in the Kansas City region.
“That’s just a matter of time,” Chartrand said.
‘They didn’t have to kill my child’
After the shooting that took Delvin Matthews from his mother in May 1998, detectives had few immediate clues about what unfolded.
Delvin and Aderyl Caldwell, 18, were fatally shot in the 1400 block of North 11th Street in KCK. Hours after the killings, a police spokesperson said that unless witnesses came forward, they were “just kind of speculating” as to what happened.
More than 120 rounds were fired from various weapons, police have said. In a 2004 story in The Star, which called the investigation a “cold case,” police said they interviewed a person they thought was shot during the attack, but said he was wounded elsewhere.
“Description of suspects: None,” the paper reported.
Ford, Delvin’s mother, was disappointed in the police investigation that followed Delvin’s death more than two decades ago. She believed the shooting was retaliation for a crime that her son was not involved in. She has waited for justice ever since.
“Not one of them made me feel like justice was going to prevail,” Ford said of the detectives initially assigned to the case in the ‘90s.
Ford buried her son on his 18th birthday. He would be in his 40s if he were alive. Her son is on her fireplace, as she put it, while those she believes committed the crime are “out there living their best lives.”
“They didn’t have to kill my child,” Ford said this week. “I want justice.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
