Police release name of man found dead in trunk in southern Durham

Durham police on Thursday identified a man found dead inside the trunk of a car this week as 39-year-old Jivon Cherry of Durham.

Officers found the body around 7:48 p.m. Tuesday in the 300 block of Glen Falls Lane in southern Durham near Research Triangle Park. The cause of death is unknown, police said in a news release.

ABC11, The News & Observer’s media partner, reported a heavy police presence Tuesday night at the Falls Pointe Apartments in that block, which is off South Alston Avenue and TW Alexander Drive.

It was the fourth homicide in the city in under a week. Police have not arrested anyone, released information on any possible suspects or said whether any of the four homicides might be related.

The recent spike in homicides comes at a time when killings in the Bull City are down from last year.

As of Sept. 10, there had been 28 homicides reported in Durham, down from 35 last year at this time and a five-year average of 36 by this time of year, according to police statistics.

As of Sept 10, there also had been a total of 172 people reported shot in Durham, 27 of them fatally. Both numbers were down slightly from last year.

As recently as last week, Durham City Council members were remarking on a recent decline in deadly gun violence in the city.

Here are the names of those killed in the past week:

▪ Anthony Giles, 23, fatally shot Sunday on N.C. 55.

▪ Wahid Downey, 18, fatally shot Thursday on Wabash Street near the McDougald Terrace housing community,

▪ Marcus Ortega-Burch, 20, fatally shot Thursday on Kent Lake Drive in southern Durham.

Anyone with information on Tuesday’s killing is asked to call Investigator A. Ramos at 919-560-4440, ext. 29245 or CrimeStoppers at 919-683-1200. CrimeStoppers pays cash rewards for anonymous information leading to arrests in felony cases.

We will update this story as we get more information.

This story was originally published September 14, 2022 at 7:59 AM.