$11,000 Murder Reward – Shot While Helping
Posted by Max Cannon in $10,000+, Missouri, Unsolved Murder, tags: CrimePAY$, James M. Clavin, Local MugSHOTS, Max Cannon, Missouri, murder, reward, RewardsTV, Unsolved Murder Reward
James Clavin
CrimePAY$ $11,000 Murder Reward TipLine 1-888-755-TIPS (8477)
ST. LOUIS • Over Eight months after the murder of James M. Clavin outside a Soulard bar, the case is unsolved. The Affton man’s relatives are now hoping that $10,000 of their own money will bring the tips that police need.
Clavin, 34, was shot to death after leaving a bar, the Social House of Soulard, at about 2:40 a.m. on Jan. 26. He was shot while offering his cellphone to a woman who had been stranded at the bar, authorities said.
Police have no suspects in the case. Clavin’s family is posting the $10,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the case.
On Saturday, Clavin’s relatives will be in Soulard to post fliers, announcing their new reward. It is in addition to the $1,000 offered by CrimeStoppers for information that leads to an arrest. Clavin’s mother-in-law, Jo Anne Bentrup of Oakville, said she and her husband are retired and took the $10,000 from their savings because they wanted the reward increased.
Bentrup hopes the killer is caught so it doesn’t happen again. She wants to save another family from the grief hers has endured. Bentrup said Clavin was married and had two young boys; one is now 5 and the other is 22 months old.
Lt. John Green, commander of the St. Louis Police Department’s homicide division, said police have nothing to go on.
“We have two different descriptions, some say the shooter was a black male, others say he was a white male,” he said. “There’s nothing, no suspects. We’re hoping CrimeStoppers will jog somebody’s memory.”
Green said part of the problem is that the witnesses had just left a bar.
“Nobody was expecting it to happen and some of the witnesses were coming from a bar and were drunk,” he said.
Police have looked at surveillance video from cameras in the area but that didn’t help. One showed the incident too far in the distance to yield any clues.
Green said Clavin wasn’t involved in any disputes inside or outside the bar.
“He seems to be an innocent victim,” Green added.
Bentrup said Clavin had been at the bar with two friends. When the bar closed, they headed to Clavin’s truck. His friends were standing on the passenger side of the truck, waiting for Clavin to get in and manually unlock their door.
A woman sought to borrow Clavin’s cellphone, and one of the friends later told Bentrup that Clavin had been reaching for his phone when the shots were fired.
“He was so trusting and would do anything for anybody,” Bentrup said.
According to the police account on the CrimeStoppers flier, Clavin was “coming to the aid of a female stranger that was involved in a verbal altercation with unknown males. Witnesses stated several shots were heard moments after the verbal altercation started.”
Witnesses saw men run away. Clavin was on the ground, shot in the chest and groin. He was taken to a hospital, where he died, police say.
Green said police have talked to the woman who needed the cellphone and she wasn’t able to describe the gunman.
Clavin lived in the 8500 block of Vasel Drive in Affton and worked as a heating and air conditioning repairman. Bentrup said she and her husband are helping their daughter Lisa take care of the young sons, and Clavin’s father recently moved back to St. Louis from Florida to help as well.
CrimePAY$ $11,000 Murder Reward TipLine 1-888-755-TIPS (8477)
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