Christy Joseph Connor
On Sunday, July 24, 2005, Christy Joseph “Chris” Connor was discovered in the trunk of a gray Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme parked in a driveway adjacent to 215 E. Central Park Ave. in Davenport, Iowa.
Davenport in Scott CountyOfficials used fingerprints to identify the 19-year-old Connor.
Police believe Connor was killed elsewhere and his body moved to the East Central Park location.
The vehicle allegedly belonged to a tenant, who disappeared afterwards.
Marnita Connor said her son had lost his job and fallen behind on his rent, which led to his dropping out of a local college.
Connor’s life spiraled further downward once he began hanging around with what his mother called the “wrong crowd.”
One year after his death, Marnita Connor held a candlelight vigil to remember her son and renew interest in the case.
“It’s been a year and I don’t have anything,” she told the Quad-City Times in an article published July 27, 2006. “No one has been arrested.
Davenport police said they hadn’t given up on finding out what happened.
“It’s still under investigation and because of that it would be inappropriate for me to comment or submit a public progress report,” Police Chief Mike Bladel said in the same Times story. “Our personnel are working on it as leads become available.”
Marnita Connor told Times reporter Dustin Lemmon she still remembered the moment she received the news from her daughter.
“She called me and she was hysterical,” Connor recalled. “She said ‘Mom, Chris is dead. They just found him in the trunk of a car.’”
Connor said she telephoned police and was asked to come to the station.
“They tried to calm me down,” she said. “They didn’t know if it was my son.”
Marnita Connor said she’d last seen her son three days before his death, and having to live without an explanation of what happened to him has been difficult.
“I was hoping this would kind of stir some things up and get someone to come forward,” she told the Times. “I need some justification for my son’s death.”
Courtesy photo Bonnie, findagrave.comChristy Joseph Connor was born February 28, 1986.
Memorial services were held at 1 p.m. Friday, July 29, at the Pentecostal Church of God in Davenport, with visitation beginning one hour prior to services.
He was buried at the Pine Hill Cemetery in Davenport.
Survivors included his parents, Robert and Marnita Connor, and siblings, Sasha and Rico McNeal, all of Davenport.
Two weeks after Connor’s death, his son, Christy Joseph Connor, Jr., was born on August 8, 2005.
If you have any information about Christy Connor’s unsolved murder please contact the Davenport Police Department’s Detective Bureau at (563) 326-7979 or Quad-Cities Crime Stoppers at (309) 762-9500. Tips may now be submitted anonymously via the Crime Stoppers of the Quad Cities Facebook page.
yo thats my father
What is the person name the vehicle was owned by that vanished? Im sure they may have resurfaced?
Oh my gosh. He had a baby born two weeks after his murder! Horrible. Any idea if the car was a dump site or belonged to the killer? Could the owner of the car have also been a victim? This seems so perplexing.
How can anyone live with themselves after killing this very young dad? Condolences to his mom, friends, and other family.
That would have been 11 years ago, not 16.
Thanks for catching that, Sarah! It appears my partners, SIMPLE and MATH, clocked out early that day. :-)
Shared
Thanks for sharing, Penny!