FORT MYERS, Fla. Eleven years later, it’s a case that still haunts Barry Lewis.
Lewis, then a detective with the Fort Myers Police Department, was called to a double homicide at the Michigan Lakes Apartments.
Angelo Gary and his cousin, Marcus Battles, were found dead on their grandmother’s porch.
“These crimes when you have had very little involvement between the perpetrator and the victim makes it much more difficult to close,” Lewis said.
Investigators believed more than one shooter was involved.
They talked to multiple witnesses.
Three suspects were identified. One was taken into custody.
But state prosecutors stopped pursuing charges two years later.
“What will it take to make a difference in this case,” asked Gary’s mother, Camelia Schley. “And how long? As a mother, you know, just even if you don’t have answers today, at least reach out to let me know ‘hey, we kind of looked over some things and you know, it might not happen today.’ Because I know it might not happen today, or tomorrow. But let me know, as a mom, that you care.”
It’s a difficult conversation to have, even for an experienced detective.
“It’s hard for me to pick the phone up and say ‘hey this case that’s 10 years old, I’m looking at it,’” Lewis said. “Because I don’t really have anything concrete to tell them.”
But Lewis, who retired from the department in 2008 but returned last year as one of the agency’s two part-time cold case investigators, said he is determined to bring justice to Gary’s family.
“Some of these things hit stone walls and just because it’s in a stagnant condition doesn’t mean that something couldn’t change,” he said.
Lewis said families of homicide victims who contact the cold case unit will receive a return phone call.