D.C. cold case detectives have the killer’s blood. All they need now is a name to match to it.
James McCallum, a father of two, was stabbed to death outside a D.C. liquor store in the late 1980s, but the knifeman left his own blood behind.
Authorities have obtained a partial DNA proÞle to match the person who killed McCallum, and they’re offering $25,000 to the person who can provide the person’s name.
McCallum worked for his brother’s construction business as a foreman. Police said he was going to buy cocaine with a friend the night of his slaying, Dec. 14, 1989.
The friend dropped McCallum off near Viggy’s Liquor at 15th and Isherwood streets in Northeast Washington, and circled the block, police said.
When the friend pulled up to the store again, he saw McCallum running away, followed by a man with a large knife.
McCallum screamed that the man was trying to rob him.
The man with the knife chased McCallum over a fence and caught up to him at a community garden where he stuck the knife into McCallum’s chest, police said.
McCallum’s friend dragged the bleeding 36-year-old into the backseat of his car to take him to a hospital, but McCallum died on the way, police said.
The killer was never found, but authorities said he cut himself and left a trail of blood from the stabbing to an apartment building on the 400 block of 18th Street NE.
The swab of blood was kept in an evidence locker, and police are looking for its match.
Anyone with information about this case, can email police at [email protected] or call 202-727-6028. Anonymous tips can be given to D.C. Crime Solvers at 800-673-2777 and to the department’s text tip line by text messaging 50411.
Readers who would like to have a cold-case homicide featured on The Washington Examiner’s Crime & Punishment page can email Scott McCabe at [email protected] or call 202-459-4950.
