MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Rosetta Hughley remembers her husband, 30-year-old Demario Hughley, as a provider, a hard worker and loving husband and father.
“He would work all day just so that he could provide and pay the bills for us,” she said.
Memphis Police say in October 2017, someone shot Demario Hughley at Open Arms Care Home in Frayser, where he worked.
“Normally my husband gets off work and he makes it home 11:30p.m., and he stands at the end of the bed and touches my feet and says, ‘Baby, I’m at home,’” she said.
But that night, Demario never made it home. Police say he was standing outside in the parking lot of the care home when someone shot him.
Looking back at that night, Hughley says she could feel that something was wrong because Demario didn’t come home at his normal time and he didn’t answer her phone calls.
But it was phone call from her husband’s co-worker that confirmed her suspicions.
“He said, ‘I work with your husband at Open Arms, you need to get to the hospital, get to the Med, Demario has been shot.’”
Hughley showed up at the hospital not knowing if her husband would still be alive.
“I got to the Med, I told them my name, the security guard at the window, she said, ‘Hold up, let me call the chaplain,’ and once she told me that, I broke down, because I’ve heard those words before,” she said.
Her husband didn’t survive.
“It didn’t become real until I had a conversation with my husband while he’s lying on a table in the morgue.”
Three years later investigators are still looking for Demario’s killer. They say the motive was likely robbery.
If you know who killed Demario Hughley you are urged to call Crime Stoppers at 528-CASH. If your tip leads to an arrest and a conviction, you could receive a cash reward. All calls are confidential.