Ten years ago, a 15-year-old Chicago boy named Demetrius Griffin Jr. was found burning inside a garbage can in an alley near the 5500 block of West Cortez Street in the Austin neighborhood. He was a freshman in high school who loved animals, especially dogs, and lived just a block and a half from where firefighters discovered him. His family says they are still waiting for the answers that could bring his killer to justice.
Griffin's death was ruled a homicide after an autopsy determined he had been burned alive, according to reporting from the Chicago Sun-Times. A separate report from ABC7 Chicago detailed that an autopsy showed Griffin died of thermal injuries due to an incendiary fire in a garbage can, meaning he was alive when the fire started. ABC7 Chicago also reported that firefighters responding to what was initially treated as a garage fire discovered his body.
The burning trash can was found on September 17, 2016. The discovery happened in mid-September nearly a decade ago, and no one has ever been arrested in connection with his death.
A Walk Home That Ended in Tragedy
According to Griffin's aunt, Rochelle Sykes, speaking to FOX 32, Demetrius had walked a young girl toward her home the evening he disappeared. The girl reportedly told the family that Griffin walked her halfway home before heading toward his own house, but Sykes said she did not believe the girl's account of what happened that night. His family had also told CBS News Chicago that he had walked a girlfriend home from school but never returned.
Sykes recalled small, ordinary details from before he vanished — he had asked her for two dollars that day, one for himself and one to buy something for a dog. Those mundane memories now sit alongside a decade of unanswered questions. Sykes told FOX 32 she has not heard from detectives in years and that the family has received few answers, saying she has not spoken with detectives since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Case That Has Stretched Across Years
Chicago Police described Griffin's case as still active in a report published two years after the killing, per CBS News Chicago's coverage of the investigation. Around that same period, Sykes told the station that police had not been able to find any new information in the unsolved murder case. Community and faith leaders had increased a reward for information leading to Griffin's killer from $10,000 to $15,000, according to the same CBS News Chicago report.
The slow pace of the investigation sits within a larger pattern in Chicago. The University of Chicago Crime Lab notes that the city's clearance rates for homicides and non-fatal shootings are among the lowest of major cities in the U.S., based on an exploration of homicides and arrests in Chicago spanning 1965 to 2020, according to the Crime Lab. By 2023, the city had established five Area Technology Centers intended to help improve how often such cases get solved, the Crime Lab reports.
Remembering Demetrius in His Community
Griffin grew up attending Sunday school and was baptized at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, where he remains part of the congregation's memory. The church's Sankofa Peace Window depicts Griffin as a tribute to young people lost to violence, and Rev. Marshall Hatch Jr. has said that church children chose the young people memorialized in the window.
Hatch has called on anyone with information to take responsibility and help bring the family answers. Near the alley where Griffin was found, Sykes placed a small book box stocked with books, gloves and hats for neighborhood children. After it was taken, she said she hopes to replace it.
How to Submit a Tip
The Chicago Police Department is asking anyone with information about Griffin's September 2016 murder to come forward. Tips can be submitted anonymously online at CPDTip.com. For a family that has waited nearly ten years, even a small new lead could change everything.
