Life in Mechanicsville for Russell D. Franklin seemed full and productive: He was father to a 2-year-old son and had a good job and lots of friends. That is, until Aug, 14, 2004, when that life was cut short by a gunshot.

Shortly after 3 a.m., the 27-year-old’s body was found in his light blue Cadillac on Old Hickory Drive, near the entrance to Sherwood Crossing Apartments. The vehicle had crashed into a dumpster.

Drew Darby, the initial investigator for the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, pursued reports of Franklin having had a “history of gang affiliations” in Maryland, according to an article that appeared in the Sept. 4, 2004, edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

In an affidavit used to search Franklin’s home, Darby said the victim had complained to his wife Kerry in a phone conversation before he died that he had been making the “same kinds of friends in Virginia that he used to have in Maryland.” He reportedly also told her that “things were getting crazy” and “his friends were all shooting each other.”

The Times-Dispatch article also said 15 guns – pistols and rifles – along with extra gun clips, weapon-repair parts and gun-part “shopping lists” were found in Franklin’s apartment.

While that article said investigators learned through interviews with Martha Franklin, the victim’s mother, and his wife “that Mr. Franklin has a history of gang affiliations in Maryland,” his mother disputed that on a phone interview on Friday. “He was never in a gang,” she said from her home in Bryans Road, Md.

She did say “There have been all sorts of rumors going around,” but she didn’t “put any credence in any of them. I don’t know of anybody that didn’t like him.”

Ashland Po-lice Chief Doug Goodman was a lieutenant in the Sheriff’s Office at the time. Whether reports of Franklin’s alleged gang connections played any part in his death was “obviously something that we’re not going to ignore,” he said in the September 2004 article.

Goodman also referred to Franklin’s other acquaintances as well in the Richmond area, saying investigators “don’t want to turn a blind eye to any avenue.”

Nearly six years after Franklin’s death, the Sheriff’s Office continues to work the case. While labeled a cold case, it remains active to Sgt. Eddy Smith, who now heads up the investigation. He calls the homicide “a real whodunit, a mystery.”

In trying to reconstruct events leading up to the shooting, Smith said it appears Franklin may have tried to elude his attacker. Shell casings were found in a parking area nearby.

Despite the case being nearly six years old, some details are still guarded, including the caliber of the weapon used.

Smith did say the shooter appeared to be “fairly close” and outside the car. One bullet, which became lodged in the car, entered through the window behind the driver. The fatal shot struck Franklin below the shoulder blade area and “came out all the way through his torso,” Smith said. Damage to several organs proved fatal.

Capt. Michael J. Trice, a supervisor with the Investigations Division, said there were no witnesses.

“There’s a large suspect pool,” Smith said. “There were no known enemies and no indication that he had any enemies.”

He also said “There is no indication it was a robbery or any kind of crime like that. The things in his vehicle were intact; nothing appeared to be rummaged through. At the moment he got shot or moments after he drove off to get away from the attack that was happening, whether he was there meeting somebody or what, we don’t know.”

“It truly was a whodunit for a very long time,” Smith said. “As the case progressed, we realized that with all his associations and different types of people and different types of associations, the suspect pool developed. It has just been an investigation to go through those suspect pools and folks whose names came up. We tried to figure out if any of them had a motive or were involved.”

“There were no reports of a recent argument,” Trice added.

Kerry Franklin was incarcerated in a Maryland prison at the time of her husband’s death. She has since been released and is raising their son Chance, now 8 years old. Attempts were made to contact her for comment.

In looking at friends and associations, Franklin had many in his hometown of Bryans Road, Md., Mechanicsville and Richmond. “He had several groups of friends,” Smith said, including work, in the city and in and around Mechanicsville. “In a short period of time he had lots of friends [here], not to mention ties to Maryland.”

“The suspect pool was immense,” Smith said. “A couple dozen people of possibilities could have done it just because of opportunity,” he said. “Nobody would have a motive that we’ve seen, but the associations were so varied.”

Another lingering question for officers is: Who is this person and who would want to get him off the street?

When they traced his whereabouts that night, officers were able to construct a good timeline. Just as it was determined in 2004, there is still “no real affirmative motive,” Smith said.

What they learned was the last club Franklin had been to that night was The Midway. From there, he had gone home to the 7400 block of Sherwood Crossing Place and then went back out.

The time frame is pretty close, Smith said. “The last time he was seen we know that it was within just a couple of hours that he had been shot and he had been seen. We determined it by the time somebody last saw him because it was such a narrow time frame.”

Franklin was last seen leaving his apartment about an hour before his body was found. A patrol deputy discovered the scene, thinking he had just come upon a minor accident.

Patrons at the Midway said Franklin “was calm, fine,” Smith said. “He had given some people a ride home. He made it to his home fine. He talked to his neighbors that night when he got home. Everything seemed normal.”

At this point, he added, there is nothing through phone records that led them to a suspect.

With Franklin having tried to flee, Smith said “It appeared that the crime may not have happened right at that intersection, but maybe nearby. He drove a short distance prior to succumbing to the injury.” “And that further complicates the case,” Trice said.

“The crime scene is normally pretty well defined,” Trice said, enabling investigators “to delve into trace evidence and all the things left behind.” The circumstances with the vehicle being moved forced officers “to kind of reconstruct [the crime scene] based on observations. It makes it more difficult. We had at least one crime scene and identified another.”

In bringing the Franklin case forward, Trice sad “Obviously we’re looking in the areas of his past associations and we did early on. More often than not, homicide victims know their attacker, know a suspect more times than not.”

“We haven’t narrowed our scope to any particular area to include an unknown, a complete stranger,” the captain added.

“It could have been a robber,” Smith said. “I think we’re open to all,” Trice said. “To the point that we had lots of people to focus on and look at, but we could never narrow it down to one particular group or another,” Smith said.

Trice, however, believes someone in Metro Richmond has knowledge of the crime. “We’re hoping that now they do step up, that they reach out and provide the information—whether it’s anonymous through Crime Stoppers or calling the Sheriff’s Office and provide the information.”

As fresh eyes look into the Franklin case, Smith said Darby “spent an extensive amount of time investigating this case. What I’ve done now is I’ve opened it up to take a second look at it, relook at all the facts.”

Flyers were distributed at the time of the shooting, but no leads were generated through that method or Crime Stoppers.

THE VICTIM

Franklin’s job with National Construction Rentals brought him to Mechanicsville. Martha Franklin said her son was a fencing foreman.

Like the officers in the Sheriff’s Office, Martha said her son “had a lot of friends.”

Mother and son were close. “I saw him about every weekend or every other weekend.” Her home is still in Bryans Road, about 60 miles from Baltimore.

At the time of his death, Martha Franklin was helping Russell raise his son. “Anytime he had to go out of town, I kept Chance.” The boy was visiting his maternal grandmother when his father was killed. Martha had taken him to see his other grandmother.

Martha doesn’t speculate on her son’s death, only that, like the information law enforcement officers found, “I understand he had lots of friends and apparently no enemies.”

“One of the hardest times for me,” Martha said, “was when Chance said ‘Daddy won’t be home anymore. He’s gone to a special home called heaven.’ “

“A friend of mine kept him while I was teaching, so he always took a picture with him to the babysitter’s and said ‘My daddy’s coming’. Once he sat down and looked at the picture and cried and cried. She said he wouldn’t stop crying and that was the last day he would say ‘Daddy would come home.’ That was the day that he realized [he wouldn’t].”

Chance lives with his mother Kerry in Lexington Park, Md. They’re about 60 miles from Russell’s hometown.

Martha remains close to her daughter-in-law and grandson. “I always talk to him. When he does something special, I tell him ‘Daddy would be so proud of you’.”

Martha and her other son, Chris, share custody of Russell’s dog, a pit-bull named Jasmine. “When we took the things out of storage a couple of years ago, and Chris was looking at what we should keep and what we should put away, the dog came over and moaned.” She said Russell’s scent triggered memories in the animal.

She said her son was talented. “He was a very good artist. He could sit and draw someone and it would look just like him. As a matter of fact, I have a picture on the wall that he drew in the sixth grade.”

“He would do anything for anybody,” she said of Russell.

She said her son was sensitive. “If he said or did anything to hurt my feelings, he would call back to make sure I was OK.”

Russell’s Cadillac was a source of pride, Martha said. “He kept that car spotless,” she said.

The officers investigating his death said the vehicle “stood out and people recognized it. A lot of people knew him by that car. It was very identifiable at that time.”

In addition to his son, Russell had a stepdaughter, Kaelyn, who, Martha said, “He thought a lot of.”

With her son’s shooting death returning to the spotlight, she is trying to arrange a reward. “We’re trying to figure out how we can set it up.” She said she plans to contact “some people to see if they’d be interested in helping a little bit.”

Russell D. Franklin’s life is commemorated by a marker in the form of a cross at the site where his lifeless body was discovered. Kerry erected the memorial within a year of his death. He is buried at Trinity Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Waldorf, Md.

Anyone with information pertaining to the Aug. 14, 2004, shooting death of Russell D. Franklin is urged to call an anonymous tip line at 780-1000. That tip line is available 24/7.