David, I have sent this letter to the News Herald. I do not expect them to print it as it is an example of the sorry excuse we have for a sheriff. I even tried to buy an ad in the News Herald to offer a reward for information on Jeremy's death. They told me today they would not do this. I will include the copy I had to submit to them. I would appreciate your help. Regards, Sandi

Jeremy Walker

November 4th 1981 was a very happy day for the Walker family. A precious baby boy was born to us at 10:39 am.  We named him Jeremy Alexander. He was a wonderful child. Jeremy was a blessed addition to our family. He was called “baby bruder” by his older brother Jon. I always told Jon to love his baby brother because he would be his best friend in the whole world.

Jon always was a “Mother Hen” to Jeremy. They could fight like cats and dogs, but Jon would not stand for anyone to look at Jeremy crossly.

Jeremy grew up too fast, as kids seem to do these days. Before we knew it he was graduating from High School in 2000. He went to Florida to work at Disney in Orlando for the summer and returned home a wonderful young man. He enrolled at Western Piedmont Community College to begin his career to become a US Marshall. He worked at a convenience store to help pay for his school expenses. His sparkling personality made him a natural to work with the public.

On June 18th 2004, Jeremy was tragically taken from us. He was murdered at the store he worked in. He had been left alone in a store with no way to secure himself inside the store. He was waiting on us to pick him up on a Friday night. We found him minutes after he had been shot.

I can’t begin to describe the horror of finding your baby as he breathed his last breath. I tried to do CPR on him as my husband took the phone to talk to the 911 operator. The Fire Department was next door, so they were there immediately. When they arrived he “still“ as they said, “had a heartbeat” They took him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

That is where our nightmare began. Nearly two and a half years have passed and the Sheriff’s Department has done nothing. They questioned a lot of people in a haphazard way. For example, one of the people we had named as a suspect that night, was not even questioned for two weeks after Jeremy was killed.

They have made conflicting statements to us about what they did and did not do. They failed to collect evidence that would have been crucial to the case, the night it happened. They have even tried to insinuate that Jeremy may have killed himself. Yet one of the detectives admitted he had talked to at least thirty people. He stated,”none of them indicated they would think Jeremy would do such a thing.”

We are certain from physical evidence, that it would have been impossible for this to happen.

Nov. 4th 2006 would have been Jeremy’s 25th birthday. We look at each other and have no closure for Jeremy’s death. We have given up on the Sheriff’s Department. There is no one else there at the department that worked on Jeremy’s case (except John McDevitt)

My Husband’s daughter is with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in Orlando. She has been on the force over twenty years. She tried to work with the Burke County Sheriff’s Department about her half brother’s death. She called us several months after Jeremy was killed and told us the Sheriff’s Department was unbelievably incompetent and was not going to do anything to help us.

We have both tried to contact the Department and have been unsuccessful. We realized after the last deputy that was on Jeremy’s case left last year, it was pointless to try to contact them any more.

We want to appeal to the public on the upcoming anniversary of Jeremy’s Birth.

Our son deserves better. We are asking for any information to help us find what happened to our Son. We are offering a $5,000.00 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever killed our Son. Your information will be kept confidential.

Contact 433-9453 The Family of Jeremy Walker