Jeremy Lamar Long was born in St. Petersburg, Florida, and was only sixteen years old at the time of his death. He attended Richard L. Sanders School, a Pinellas County school serving students through specialized educational programs.
Those who knew Jeremy remembered him by the nickname “Jay.” Friends described him as affectionate, sensitive, and as someone who offered surprisingly thoughtful advice despite his young age. His high-school reading teacher remembered him as an especially caring student whose relationships with his mother and younger sister were especially important to him.
In December of 2008, his family would be torn apart in a matter of seconds.
Jeremy lived at 4860 81st Avenue North in Pinellas Park, a city just northwest of St. Petersburg. At approximately eight thirty p.m. on Thursday, December 18th, an intruder entered the residence.
The gunman went into Jeremy’s bedroom. Exactly what was said between the two has never been publicly explained in detail, but one horrifying fact emerged in the immediate aftermath. According to Jeremy’s mother, her son begged the man not to shoot him. The plea did not save him. The assailant fired, striking the sixteen-year-old.
The shooter then rushed from the residence, got behind the wheel of a waiting silver Honda and escaped. Contemporary police information described the vehicle as either a Honda Civic or Honda Accord, believed to be from approximately the 1991 through 1995 model years. Early reporting added that the Honda had dark-tinted windows.
Jeremy remained inside the bedroom, badly wounded. Police and emergency personnel responded to the home, and Jeremy was transported to a hospital. Despite efforts to save him, he succumbed to the gunshot wound. His obituary records that he died that night at Northside Hospital.
Investigators had a physical description almost immediately. Pinellas Park police described the suspect as a dark-skinned Black male approximately six feet two inches tall and weighing around two hundred pounds.
What police did not have was an obvious explanation for why Jeremy had been killed. The Tampa Bay Times reported two days after the shooting that investigators had found no apparent motive. Although the crime had initially been characterized as a home invasion, the circumstances suggested something potentially more deliberate than a random burglary: the assailant had entered the house, gone to the teenager’s bedroom and shot him.
Police were consequently investigating whether Jeremy had specifically been targeted. Yet publicly available records provide little indication of what connection, if any, existed between Jeremy and his killer.
Authorities have not identified a suspect, nor have they announced that robbery was the motive. They have also not publicly established that Jeremy was involved in anything that would explain why an armed man would come looking for him.
By 2011, Detective Roxanne Hunt of the Pinellas Park Police Department said investigators had received numerous tips and had looked at potential suspects, but none had resulted in an arrest.
That year Jeremy’s case was selected for a Crime Stoppers cold-case billboard campaign organized with local law enforcement and Clear Channel Outdoor. His case was one of six Pinellas County mysteries chosen for public exposure in hopes that prominently displaying information about the victims would generate a new lead. A Jeremy Long billboard was scheduled to appear near 34th Street and 14th Avenue South in St. Petersburg during August through October 2011.
But the years continued to accumulate with no breakthrough. As of 2026, the Pinellas Park Police Department continues to classify Jeremy Long’s murder as unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 