Peachtree Hoops: Lorenzen Wright murder update: "We're still a long way from solving this crime"

[Hawksquawk]

Every year, according to most recent historical statistics, anywhere from 25-35% of the nation's murders go unsolved.

Our hearts and prayers go out to all the families whose lost loved ones fall into that miserable statistic, but our thoughts this weekend were on our lost Hawk, Lorenzen Wright. 

It was almost one year ago that we were shocked into the reality that Wright had been gunned down in the Memphis suburbs and were then treated to the disheartening details of how it all went down.

For those who have wanted justice, none has been offered, but then again, statistics have not been kind to Lorenzen from the moment he possibly typed 9-1-1.

From a recent post to ESPN.com:

In the early morning of July 19, a police dispatcher in the suburb of Germantown received a call from Wright's cell phone. Dispatchers acknowledged they heard noises like gunshots before the call was dropped.

Dispatchers said they didn't alert patrol officers or commanders because they couldn't confirm it came from their jurisdiction. They didn't send a patrol officer or relay the information to Memphis police until days later.

 

The odds are better to catch a criminal at the earliest moments after a crime. The Casey Anthony trial showed how hard it is to prove anything substantial after a significant amount of time has passed.

To make the 9-1-1 matter worse, even a missing persons report filed four days after Wright's disappearance met with the same dysfunction.

Wright's mother filed a missing person report with Collierville police on July 22. Authorities in Collierville were accused of dragging their feet in the days after the report was filed, and an apparent lack of communication kept authorities from linking the 911 call to the missing person report.    

 

I don't pretend to have known Lorenzen beyond the scope of what Hawks games and the press access immediately after provided, but he was a bright, positive, energetic light to me and when it was eliminated I know I was hoping for justice and closure for his mama and others.

Instead, Wright falls into the darkest statistical abyss there might be, and I wish it wasn't so.

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