Three years ago, federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna left the courthouse in Baltimore, never to return. He was found dead hours later in a Pennsylvania creek with multiple stab wounds, and his case remains unsolved.
On Monday, a small group of people gathered near the federal courthouse where Luna worked to remember the man ? and the mystery.
“You don?t just vanish from a courthouse at midnight,” said William Keisling, author of “The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna” (Yardbird Books), which details the circumstances and mystery surrounding Luna?s death.
Toni Smith, a city council member from York, Pa., who drove to Baltimore to remember Luna, said she continues to follow the case because she believes justice has not been served.
“I believe an injustice was done to Jonathan Luna and we need to find out the truth,” she said, standing outside the courthouse.
Luna, 38, who prosecuted drug and violent-crime cases, left the federal courthouse in Baltimore at midnight on Dec. 4, 2003. His body was discovered the next morning lying in a stream underneath the bumper of his car. Keisling said Luna had dozens of stab wounds, including lacerations to his hands and back. His death was ruled a homicide by the Lancaster County Coroner?s Office, but a three-year investigation has netted no suspects.
A spokeswoman for the FBI said the bureau would not comment on the case.
Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said that, if anything, Luna?s family deserves answers.
“We need to let the family know why this happened,” he said. “They deserve justice.”
Keisling said while many of the details of the case don?t add up, it?s important to remember Luna the man as well.
“The more you learn about him, the more of [a] great person he was,” he said.
“That?s one of the reasons I keep working on the story.”
