No credible tips. No real leads. No suspects named, charged or arrested.
Nearly three years have passed since Monique Marlowe was shot and left to die in the back of a rental car, and they've been quiet ones. The 25-year-old — third in her class at Winder's Apalachee High School and an honors graduate of the University of Georgia — gave Gwinnett authorities a vague description of her assailant before she passed, but that's all there is.
A black man, a blue shirt and no answers.
Two years, 9 months and 15 days after Marlowe was murdered, the only new development in the case is a plea for more developments. The family announced Tuesday that they’ve upped the reward to $100,000.
“If no leads turn up after this, I guess nothing will make anybody talk, and maybe (the killer) is the only one who knows,” Marlowe’s father, Dan, said Tuesday. “We just have to try.”
On Sept. 12, 2012, Monique Marlowe was vacuuming a vehicle in a back lot at the Hertz Rent-A-Car on Duluth’s Satellite Boulevard, a place where she’d taken a job during the post-collegiate search for something bigger and better. While reaching across the car’s backseat, Marlowe was approached by the still-unknown suspect, assaulted and shot in the stomach.
Whether by foot, in a car or on a bus stopped at the nearby Gwinnett County Transit station, the man escaped. Marlowe’s coworkers eventually found her and called 911.
She died shortly after arriving at the hospital.
In the months and years since, Marlowe’s loved ones have tried everything. They’ve posted flyers at bus stops and handed them out to riders. They’ve put a billboard up along I-85.
Hertz announced a $25,000 reward, then raised it to $50,000.
The Marlowes have now decided to match that reward with their own money, bringing the total to $100,000. They’re hoping more money — and the 90-day expiration date put on the additional offer — will break someone’s silence.
“Maybe, just maybe that will be enough to get someone to talk,” Dan Marlowe, 73 and living with leukemia, said. “I don’t know what else to do.”
Gwinnett County police spokeswoman Cpl. Michele Pihera said Tuesday that the case is still being worked by its original detective, C.J. Robertson, but “no credible leads have been developed in the nearly three years since it happened.
“Because there is so little evidence in the case, we are relying on tips from the public.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Robertson at 770-513-5300. Tipsters can also remain anonymous by contacting Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS or crimestoppersatlanta.org.
