On what would have been her 37th birthday, the family of D’Lisa Kelley gathered in Dallas to demand answers in a murder case that has gone unsolved for more than a decade. The gathering drew family members, childhood friends, and community advocates who say the passage of time has done nothing to dull the urgency for justice.
,Kelley disappeared on March 7, 2014, after leaving her grandmother’s Oak Cliff home on her way to a wake for her best friend who had died in a car crash the week prior., ,Hours later, one of her sisters received what appeared to be an accidental call from D’Lisa’s phone. Upon answering, her sister heard D’Lisa screaming and what sounded like someone beating her.,
,D’Lisa Kelley’s body was discovered on the front porch of an abandoned home at 1215 Presidio Ave. in Oak Cliff on March 14, 2014., ,She was also expecting her second child and was eight weeks pregnant at the time of her death.,
Her mother, Lasondra Kelley, described the brutal nature of her daughter’s injuries and made clear that whoever is responsible has not been forgotten. She addressed the killer directly at Friday’s gathering, warning that the family will not stop until they find answers.
,Despite the family’s efforts to locate D’Lisa in the days she was missing, the initial police response was slow and dismissive., ,Police did not send anyone to take a report after D’Lisa’s grandmother called 911 fearing for her granddaughter’s safety, and it was two days before a missing persons report was officially filed.,
Dominique Alexander, a community activist who said he grew up with Kelley, told those gathered that the case changed the course of his life. He said D’Lisa’s death inspired him to establish the Next Generation Action Network, and he is now leading efforts to pressure Dallas police to continue actively working the investigation.
Civil rights attorney Sean Dardeia argued that science has outpaced what investigators had available in 2014 and called on authorities to reopen and retest the evidence. He pointed specifically to advances in genetic genealogy and DNA analysis as tools that could crack the case open. ,Those methods have already proven effective in Dallas County, where forensic genetic genealogy was used to solve a decades-old Oak Cliff murder, marking the first time that capability was used in a case tried in Dallas County.,
Dallas police issued a statement saying their Special Investigations Unit has taken over the cold case and is working with newer investigative methods that were not available when Kelley was killed. The department said it remains committed to pursuing every lead to identify her killer.
,D’Lisa Kelley’s murder also led to lasting change in Texas law, as her family successfully advocated for the creation of an alert system aimed at improving police response in missing adult cases., That system, known as the CLEAR Alert, which stands for Coordinated Law Enforcement Adult Rescue, was designed to bring the same urgency to missing or endangered adults that Amber Alerts bring to missing children.
Lasondra Kelley said the grief of losing her daughter never fades and urged others not to believe that time heals all wounds. Her message on Friday was one of grief, resolve, and an unbroken promise to her daughter that justice will come.