Two days ago the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office released the name of the third victim in the Detroit trunk murders, where four of the city's young women have met a fatal end and turned up mere blocks from one another in the trunk of two vehicles on the east side of the town. And while Backpage.com has figured into the investigation, the website that offers adult ads for escort services isn't the only entity attempting to assist police with information.
Blackberry Bar and Grill was the site where the first two victims--Demesha Hunt, 24, and her cousin Renisha Landers, 23--were supposed to have gone on their Saturday night outing. But Fox2 reported that while both young ladies were well known at the Grand River location (and well liked), neither is believed to have been on site at the bar the Saturday in question.
An earlier WJBK report, however, stated that the young females were last seen at the bar located on Grand River, a mere 19 minutes drive from where their bodies were later found on Promenade.
Blackberry's management told Fox 2 they would cooperate in the investigation with Detroit PD in any way possible, much like Backpage.com's statement. But even if the two women did meet their murderer online, as the police fear, a physical meetup had to occur somewhere, and it is possible that such a meeting first took place in a public setting the young women would have felt safe at, like Blackberry. (Update: another female in her 20s was murdered in Detroit on Jan. 14, and it occurred outside of Blackberry Bar).
Detroit PD has undoubtedly asked for management to check for any credit card slips bearing the girl's names or any surveillance tapes for the night in question, as well as talked to bar staff working on the weekend of the girls' disappearance. Wait staff will know if any strangers to the locale inquired after either girl in the days leading up to their disappearance as well.
The Backpage.com link between three of the four victims, therefore, may not be the only link if Blackberry Bar and Grill does prove to be a site visited by Demesha Hunt and Renisha Landers on the weekend they disappeared, as well as a spot frequented in the past by Vernithea McCrary and the suspected fourth victim, Natasha Curtis.
References: Blackberry Bar and Grill, Detroit Free Press, My Fox Detroit
Radell Smith recently published her first work of fiction. You can purchase the "Ali Brown Criminal Profiler Series" in print or eBook form at her profiling website or purchase directly from Amazon.com
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