14 hours ago
Family gathers to remember victims, push for justice in unsolved Metroparks murders
CLEVELAND (WJW) – Six years later, the family and friends of Kate Brown and Carnell Sledge are still pushing for answers.
Donning orange shirts to mark National Gun Violence Awareness Month, they gathered at the Rocky River Reservation on Saturday near the bench where the two were found shot to death in 2019.
They placed signs with information on them along the Valley Parkway and set up a table to hand out yard signs, flyers and car magnets.
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All those items had information on how to stay connected with the case online to keep it alive, and a reminder that there is a $100,000 reward for anyone who contacts Crime Stoppers or Cleveland Metroparks police with information that can lead to an arrest.
'Two people, two beautiful people were shot and killed right on the bench [by the river], and we have no idea,' Kate's mom, Kim Brown, told FOX 8.
It's been a long six years and it also feels like it happened just yesterday, according to Kim.
Kate's older sister, Lauren Rao, and younger sister, Alex Brown, agreed. They hope that the tradition of holding this gathering around the anniversary of the murders to spread the word about their sister's case doesn't last much longer.
'It's been a long road of healing and without any justice, we believe it makes it that much harder to keep hearing these news stories. To keep wondering, it drives you mad,' Alex said.
The FOX 8 I-Team recently revealed a possible break in the case when police started looking at Bryan Hurt, the suspected shooter in a murder-suicide for possible connections.
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Despite that, Rao said it's just another one of the highs and lows they've experiences since her younger sister was killed.
'We're hopeful and we appreciate that it's reinvigorating the case and that people are talking about it, but like the Metroparks chief stated, [Hurt is] just as much of a subject as anyone else and that they're doing their due diligence to look into him,' she said. 'We're just doing anything that we possibly can to keep their case in the spotlight. We want people to talk about it. We want people to share memories, to say their names, to not have them be forgotten.'
Anyone who has information that could help detectives crack the case is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at (216) 252-7463 or Cleveland Metroparks police at (440) 331-5530.
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