Still no arrests 25 years after shooting that killed 3 in St. Petersburg

A man drove a white Camaro into an alley seven blocks southwest of St. Petersburg’s Childs Park in the early hours of July 25, 1998. A pair of teen cousins biked toward the car. Suddenly, the alley exploded with gunshots.

Minutes later, a girl banged on the windows of a family’s home down the street. She had a message for Sadie Holloway, a mother of five who had just returned from a night shift at her nursing job: Her 17-yearold son Derrick had been shot.

Sadie Holloway began to run toward the crime scene. Then, she stopped.

“I just didn’t want to see my baby like that,” Holloway told the then-St. Petersburg Times in 1998.

A young police officer named Michael Kovacsev arrived at the scene first. He saw Jay Jones, 38, shot and in critical condition in his car. He found Aaron Golden, 15, lying in the alley. But most of all, he remembers the chaotic moment first responders realized there were not two victims like they originally thought. A block away from the alley lay a third victim: Derrick Holloway, who appeared to have fled and made it near his home before being chased down and shot multiple times.

None of the three victims survived.

Last week marked 25 years since the triple homicide. Still, questions remain. Who killed three people that night? And why?

These questions haunt Kovacsev, who is now an assistant chief of the St. Petersburg Police Department. After nearly three decades in law enforcement, he says the killings have stuck with him throughout his career.

“It’s very uncommon to have three deaths at one time and the vast majority of those cases end up getting solved,” Kovacsev said. “Here we are 25 years later and there is still no resolution.”

Police say Jones and a friend likely drove into the neighborhood around 1:30 a.m. to buy crack cocaine. Police are keeping the identity of Jones’ friend, the sole survivor, a secret. Kovacsev said the friend is a witness, not a suspect. A vial of crack, a crack pipe and other drug paraphernalia were found in the alley.

The mothers of Holloway and Golden believed their sons were innocent bystanders unrelated to the drug deal occurring in the alley.

Kovacsev said drug-related cases can be more difficult to solve because witnesses fear being prosecuted on drug charges if they come forward.

“Just because some people have a low in their life or a problem, it doesn’t mean they can’t turn their lives around,” Kovacsev said. “These individuals weren’t given the opportunity to ever turn their lives around because they were snuffed out so callously for no reason whatsoever.”

The victims would be 63, 42 and 40 today. Efforts by a Times reporter to reach their families recently were unsuccessful.

In 1998, detectives received a detailed suspect description of a Black male in his mid-20s with short black hair and several gold teeth. However, Kovacsev said

more evidence is needed for a criminal prosecution.

The nature of the crime makes building a case difficult, Kovacsev said. Unlike many crimes of passion, a shooting like this one does not require physical contact between the perpetrator and victims. This means it is unlikely the shooter left DNA behind.

Ultimately, solving this case depends on someone coming forward 25 years later with new information. Kovacsev says there are people who know what happened that night — and now is the time to tell police.

“This is one of those that quite frankly can be solved if somebody would just come forward,” Kovacsev said. “Hopefully, 25 years later, people mature and they realize there are three families out there that don’t have any resolution and they would love to have some type of understanding on what exactly transpired that night.”

The St. Petersburg Police Department has two detectives working on unsolved cases, Kovacsev said. The department also has a webpage dedicated to unsolved homicides, which Kovacsev says keeps the victims’ memories alive and holds police accountable to continue trying to solve their cases.

On the 25th anniversary of the triple homicide, Kovacsev is thinking of the families.

“We really strive to provide resolution for families,” Kovacsev said. “Even if it doesn’t always result in an arrest, we try to provide something that allows for a little bit of closure and doesn’t leave the agonizing pain that exists because we can’t provide them with that.”