KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Corey's Network, Inc. founder Shelley Norris opened up a box filled with fliers with faces on them.
"This is only half of the fliers that we're going to start displaying on Sunday," Norris said.
Norris is used to seeing hundreds of faces every day.
"They go from 1970 to this year," Norris said, rifling through the fliers glued to wooden stakes.
They are the faces of people whose homicides are unsolved in the Kansas City metro.
Ever since her own son, Corey Laykovich, was murdered in 2013, she's seen how many other families were dealing with the same loss.
"Every year, and you've known us a long time, every year since 2013, we went from one person we wanted to solve a murder for to 300 to 500 to 600," Norris said.
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And every year, at its annual vigil for unsolved homicides, Corey's Network sets out more fliers than the year before.
More families attend each year to express their grief.
But this year, there's a glimmer of hope.
"This is the first year we're going with fewer fliers than we have in the past years," Norris said.
They were up to 741 names last year. For this year, they're at 695 names.
"I think this is a very healthy trend," Norris said.
Norris and her husband, Bob Norris, verify the list with KCPD and other departments.
KCPD is investigating most of the unsolved homicides on the list. So far this year, KCPD has cleared 44 of the 93 recorded homicides, plus an additional 20 homicides from years' past.
KCPD's clearance rate for 2024 was 76 percent. In the year before, it was 73 percent. The national homicide clearance rate is 58 percent.
One of KCPD's spokespeople sent us a statement that reads, in part, "Much of what we do is with the help of the community coming forward and providing critical information to help generate leads in these cases. They assist in making our city safer with every 911 or TIPS hotline call, and for that, we greatly thank them. This truly shows how collaboration and cohesion can yield positive results."
All Norris can hope for is even fewer fliers next year.
"I want to see the whole thing solved," Norris said, putting all the fliers back in the box.
Maybe one day, she can put the box away for good.
Corey's Network is holding its 13th annual vigil for unsolved homicides on Sunday at Speaks Suburban Chapel in Independence from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Its online social media vigil started on Friday and runs through Sunday evening, displaying a different flier every five minutes.
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