MEMPHIS, Tenn. —The body of a man was found in the back of a van Tuesday at a Memphis Police impound lot.
The van was involved in a crime in December on Yale Avenue.
Memphis Police say several men tried to rob three men in a van.
The driver of the van was shot and went to the hospital in critical condition, a second passenger was not injured.
Nearly two months after he was initially shot the driver of the van was out of the hospital and went to pick up his van from the impound lot.
Sources say the van was set to be auctioned off.
When he looked in his van, he discovered the third man who had been inside at the time of the crime, dead, still in the back of the van.
This isn’t the first time a victim’s body has been discovered in a vehicle at the Memphis Police impound lot.
In 2007, Chris Carmicle’s family found him in the trunk of his car at the lot.
To this day, they tell WREG the person responsible for his murder has not been caught.
“It just brings back harsh memories of what could have happened,” Tommye Wilder said.
Wilder wants to know who killed her 33-year-old son and father of five.
More than a decade after his death she can still remember the last words she said to him.
“He was getting ready to go over my sister’s party and we hugged and talked, and I said ‘remember, I love you,” she said.
Little did she know, her happiness at the time would turn to worry.
Wilder and her other son, Kelvin Knight, Carmicle’s younger brother, told WREG what happened after he was reported missing in 2007.
One day Memphis Police told them Carmicle’s car was at their impound lot.
Knight says they were told the car was either going to be crushed or put up for auction.
“My mom wanted to get some information out of the car, as much information as possible. Because he was missing at the time,” Knight said.
The mother and son searched the vehicle, looking for clues.
They discovered a spare key, tried to open the car’s trunk but the key snapped.
“What I eventually did is I snatched down the back seat. As soon as I did, I pulled the seat down and I scoped his body in the trunk,” Knight said.
The body was his brother, Chris Carmicle. He had gunshot wounds.
His family has no idea why he was overlooked.
“There was fingerprint dust all around the car, except for on the trunk,” Knight said.
Seeing the news of another body discovered in a vehicle at the impound lot that was part of a crime reopens the family’s wounds.
They had hoped things changed.
Wilder still hopes they do, for all families who fall victim to violent crime.
“You’re going to make sure that nothing like this happens again. You’re going in there, and you’re going to unlock the trunks, pull out everything in the vehicle and make sure there’s nothing behind the seats and nothing in the trunk. Let us know that you take pride in your job and you care about us as citizens,” the mother said.
Memphis Police Director Mike Rallings says what happened in this recent case is unacceptable and an investigation is underway.
