12 years ago, Alicia was murdered in front of her toddler. Her family think it was someone she knew.

Ohio woman Alicia Jackson was a devoted mother to her little boy, a loyal girlfriend, a caring friend and loved family member. An ambitious young woman who’d worked hard to get her Master’s degree. 

Alicia had big plans to move to Dallas with her live-in boyfriend Eugene Wilson and their two-year-old son Jeremiah, who family describe as the “apple of his mother’s eye”. But she never got the chance to make those plans a reality – on the evening of December 2, 2010, Alicia’s life was tragically cut short in a brutal murder that has remained unsolved for 12 long years.

It started off as a regular weeknight, with Alicia leaving work early to pick up her young son, who she called Juju, from the babysitter, and take him home for dinner and bath duties. 

Her partner Eugene arrived home to their Columbus apartment at 9pm to the gruesome sight of Alicia having been stabbed more than 30 times in the face, neck and chest.

Little Jeremiah was still sitting in his highchair, and the only items missing from the home were two laptops and Alicia’s phone.

Columbus Police Department homicide detective James Porter told People magazine, “The fact that somebody did this in front of her child and left the child there, unattended, is scary is so many different ways.”

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A thorough investigation began immediately but there were hurdles from the start – no surveillance cameras to provide any helpful clues as to a suspect, no signs of forced entry, and dead ends from all the evidence collected from the crime scene.

Her father Kevin tells Fox43 of the unfathomable crime, “You keep wondering how somebody can hate somebody and be evil to that degree that they would take a life, especially in that fashion, and live with themselves.”

The case has remained an active investigation, but in all these years, not one charge has been filed nor one suspect or person of interest publicly named.

Sergeant Eric Pilya from the local Homicide Cold Case Unit said the now-retired Detective Steve Eppert “worked this case exhaustively”, adding, “Det. Eppert was one of the best homicide detectives we have ever had.”

One thing detectives and friends and family can agree on? That Alicia’s brutal murder was “100 per cent personal”, and that the cold-blooded murderer was more than likely someone she knew.

The fact that the stove and TV were still on, her young son was still seated at his dinner spot, unharmed, and only some targeted personal items were stolen all point to Alicia’s probable connection to her killer. Further to that, neighbours reported no disturbance at the time of the murder; strange, given the violent scene that had unfolded.

Alicia’s younger brother, Trevin, insists it’s the only explanation for what transpired that night. “She was cautious. It would be very unlikely for her to see somebody at the door that she doesn’t know and let them in the house with her toddler son there while she was feeding,” he says. “There is a 0 per cent chance that would happen.”

Columbus Police Department homicide detective James Porter agrees. “It looks like she probably knew whoever it was,” Porter says. “Somebody who had a conflict with her of some kind.”

Eerily, on December 1, the night before Alicia’s death, her cousin and best friend, Shauntay Jackson, received a message from her cousin that read, “I just want to let you know I love you.” She replied, and it was the last correspondence they would ever have.

But who would want Alicia dead?

Just as baffling to those who knew Alicia was the notion that someone would wish her ill will, let alone carry that much hatred toward her to commit such a heinous crime. Many remember her as a well-liked, pleasant young woman, someone so popular she was voted Homecoming Queen as a senior at Central Dauphin East High School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“They say no one’s perfect and obviously I’m not saying she was perfect, but as close to perfection as you can get, she was,” Shauntay says.

One high school friend, Renee Higgins, describes Alicia as “funny, she was smart, she was kind. It was hard not to gravitate towards her.”

Shauntay also spoke to Alicia’s devotion as a mum. “She was so excited when Juju was hitting all his milestones,” she said. “You could feel the love.”

Image: People

There were some relationship issues between Alicia and Eugene, who met and fell in love while both studying at Ohio State University. While Alicia was pregnant with Jeremiah, she found out about Eugene’s infidelity, and that he had fathered a child with another woman.

“I knew that hurt Alicia substantially,” her father Kevin told Dateline.

But Shauntay insisted, “There was a rough patch but she ultimately decided to get through that and she decided to move forward.”

Police say Eugene’s whereabouts is accounted for at the time of Alicia’s murder, and he is not a suspect.

From cold case to podcast. 

In recent years, Alicia’s unsolved murder has caught the interest of a forensics class at William Mason High School in Ohio. The students looking into the mysterious murder have dug up police and autopsy reports, searched for undiscovered connections to the story and even interviewed the young mother’s friends and relatives, all of which culminated in a podcast, Cold Case MHS: Monsters and Demons.

One student, Lily, says of the case, “It seems unfair almost that it was never solved, because she was so loved and there were so many people who still care and are still posting about it, and her son is still there.”

There’s been a good track record of true crime podcasts helping to solve difficult cases around the world in recent years, but even if they can’t find Alicia’s killer, the students hope to shine a much-needed light on the old case.

“Maybe we can get attention back on it, and hopefully somebody knows something, or somebody has heard something, and they can go to the police and tell them what they know,” says teacher Randy Hubbard.

Alicia’s brother Trevin, for one, is grateful to the students for their proactivity. “I think anyone who has the same interest in bringing the murderer to justice… is someone who has the same interest as mine.”

Holding on to hope. 

A few months after Alicia’s death, Eugene and their son went through with their plan to relocate to Dallas, Texas. Jeremiah, now a teenager, visits Alicia’s family in the summer “for a week or two”, but grandfather Kevin says, “I would love to have more time with him. That’s the only memory I have of Alicia.”

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Her family has also created a scholarship in Alicia’s name, to be awarded to students from her high school each year.

It’s coming up to 13 years of the case remaining unsolved, but even with no leads or suspects after all this time, her loved ones still aren’t giving up hope that justice will be served.

“We’re not going to find that knife. We’re not going to find Alicia’s laptop and phone that were stolen from her townhouse that night,” says Shauntay. “We’re not going to get a confession at this point. Word of mouth is all we have.”

Detective Porter believes just one lead, a “magic phone call”, could prove imperative to solving the case. “If the right person gives us the right information, then yes, it can be solved,” he says. “I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”

Feature Image: People