HARRISONVILLE, Mo. – A Harrisonville mother is hoping the new $25,000 Crime Stoppers reward will be the key to solving her son’s homicide.
Nearly a year since her son was killed, Cynthia Hopkins said she feels a lost now as she ever did.
On July 9, 2018, police found 36-year-old Derrick Harris dead in someone’s back yard in Kansas City. He’d been shot in the back near 16th and Lister, according to investigators.
“I feel like this last year I just walked around in a daze. It don’t seem real,” Hopkins said.
FOX4 met with Harris’ family Tuesday afternoon at a park in Harrisonville where they live. Hopkins said her son’s death has been traumatizing for the whole family.
“It doesn’t affect just one. It affects so many. That one bullet can affect so many lives and break so many hearts,” she said.
“Your brain goes crazy all day, all night long just thinking of the reasons why it could’ve happened,” Harris’ brother Jacob Burns said.
Without any answers from detectives yet, the family said it finds some comfort in being around people with the same burden.
“We’ve done a lot of vigils,” Derrick’s aunt Debbie Pulliam said. “We’ve mostly gone and supported other people and been their support for us, too.”
“We have met so many families that are grieving the same way we are, and I know how their hearts are so broken,” Hopkins added.
They are hoping the new increased reward of $25,000 might bring them answers.
“I want to know who shot him, and I want to know why,” Hopkins said.
There have been no arrests yet in the case. If you know what happened to either of these men, please call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477. You can also submit a tip online here.
