(Memphis) “I’ve been waiting on this day. I knew it was gonna happen, just didn’t know when,” says Deborah Marion.
She is ready for the national spotlight.
There is no time to be nervous.
This is what she wanted, the attention of the national show Celebrity Crime Files to tell the story that haunts Deborah, the murder of her famous basketball son, former NBA player and Grizzlies star Lorenzen Wright.
“Maybe it could work on someone’s conscious and they say I been holding this almost three years. It’s time to let this out,” says Marion.
In February, Marion started a texting frenzy, contacting people across the country, asking them to call TV One and encourage the station to profile Lorenzen Wright’s murder.
“They got over a thousand voice messages. I texted 560 myself. My friend and family did the rest,” she says.
TV One’s Celebrity Crime Files regularly profiles the life and untimely deaths of some of the biggest celebrities.
The show digs deep into the case to generate buzz about cases that otherwise seem to have grown cold, cases like Lorenzen Wright’s.
July will mark three years since his body was found in an east Memphis field.
Police questioned plenty of people and put out an urgent call for tips.
“We feel like we owe it to the family and friends left behind to offer them closure,” said Police Director Toney Armstrong back in July 2011.
But police have no leads in finding the shooter.
“Every time I call it’s the same thing. We don’t have any more leads. We don’t know any more. But somebody gotta know something. If police can’t do it they need a little help,” says Marion.
So on a March afternoon in a South Memphis warehouse studio, Marion met with producers from Celebrity Crime Files, once again reliving the nightmare she lives everyday.
“Its wasn’t a good end, nothing nice about the end of the story,” says Marion.
Show producers spent days in Memphis, shooting video, learning about Lorenzen’s past and interviewing police, family, friends and former team mates..
But Deborah Marion says unfortunately Lorenzen’s ex-wife, Sherra, and their children never showed up.
“Lorenzen Junior was coming. I guess their mom changed her mind about letting them come,” says Marion.
So Deborah talked, reminisced, reflected.
“I teared up maybe twice. On the third time I said I can’t do this,” said Marion.
Celebrity Crime File Producers say they had the Lorenzen Wright story on their radar, but when they talked to Deborah Marion and saw her passion, they knew it was a story everyone would care about.
“I am gonna keep pushing til somebody throws up their hands and say I surrender. I gotta tell this lady something,” says Marion.
The Lorenzen Wright story on Celebrity Crime Files will air in July or August, around the same time of year Lorenzen Wright went from being a hometown hero to a murder mystery.
At the end of the show, viewers across the country will see a number to call if they know anything about the case.