Thirty-two-year-old Leon Adams was a laid-back father with a passion for music and community, described by those who knew him as affable and family-oriented. He lived in a house at 6025 Lady Hammond Road in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
On the evening of May 21st, 2005, Leon was at home, winding down what appeared to be an ordinary night. Sometime after midnight, he stepped out briefly, perhaps for a quick errand or to meet a friend, before returning to the residence around three-thirty a.m. It was shortly afterward that tragedy struck.
At four twenty a.m. on May 22nd, police responded to a frantic call reporting an injured person. When emergency services arrived, Leon was found collapsed in the hallway, a single gunshot wound to his body. Paramedics rushed him to the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, but he was pronounced dead upon arrival.
The scene at Lady Hammond Road, a modest residential area near the Bedford Basin, offered few immediate clues. Police cordoned off the two-story home as forensics teams combed for evidence: shell casings, fingerprints, signs of forced entry. None of the dramatic hallmarks of a botched robbery or home invasion emerged. Instead, the investigation pointed to a targeted attack—someone who knew Leon’s routines, perhaps even his brief absence that night. Witnesses in the vicinity reported hearing a muffled pop around the time of the shooting, but the early hour meant few were awake to provide more than vague recollections. Leon lived alone at the time, and no signs indicated accomplices or a broader motive like drug-related disputes, though police have never ruled out interpersonal conflicts.
From the outset, the HRP’s homicide unit, part of the Integrated Criminal Investigation Division, treated the case with urgency. Detectives canvassed neighbors, interviewed associates, and traced Leon’s movements in the hours leading up to his death. Yet, as weeks turned to months, leads dried up. No arrests were made, no suspects publicly named. The file joined a grim roster of cold cases in Nova Scotia, where urban violence in the early 2000s often left more questions than answers.
The HRP continues to appeal for tips on every anniversary, with a poignant release on May 22nd, 2025, marking the 20th year. “Investigators believe there are people out there with information that could help solve Leon’s murder,” the statement read, urging even anonymous callers to come forward. “It is never too late—even the smallest piece of information could be the key to providing Leon’s family with answers.”
In a bid to break the silence, Adams’s case was added to the Nova Scotia Department of Justice’s Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program. The province offers up to $150,000 in cash for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. But two decades later, the murder of Leon Adams is still unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 