NORTH PORT, Fla. — Behind every face and every action, there's a name. The search for those names is where the journey begins.
Fox 4's Senior Reporter Kaitlin Knapp is on a mission to get to know the names we know, and perhaps find the ones we don't - along with the detectives working in the same communities you call home.
In Fox 4's series called "Sunshine Crimes," we are going across Southwest Florida to tell the stories of people waiting for justice.
This case takes you to North Port. The man wasn't killed in a house or at a store; they were shot to death on I-75.
On March 7, 2020, the sound of cars going by were drowned out by gunshots.
"Multiple holes in the side of the vehicle," said North Port Police Det. Brian Chippendale.
A vehicle on the side of the road after it crashed into a guardrail.
Was it road rage? Did the driver know the shooter?
Chippendale had to figure that out.
"We didn't know anything about the victim. So at that point road rage was probably one of the, you know, the most that came to mind," he said.
The first step: identify the man who was killed. His name was Javaris Miller.
"They were coming from a nightclub in Palmetto," Chippendale said.
Miller and his half brother were at the club. Chippendale says they left the nightclub after they saw another group of people, who he says identified as a gang. However, it's not clear if Miller was in one.
"I guess that has been an ongoing feud.
Here's where police started to realize Miller was targeted. Chippendale says when Miller left the club, the group followed him and his half brother in two separate cars.
"We caught the two vehicles that were following and chasing the victim," Chippendale said.
This was later in the investigation. Both vehicles were spotted going past a vape store in Palmetto. The other time was at a Pilot gas station in Charlotte County before hitting the highway. Detectives determined one car was a rental.
"We believe it was a gunshot right there," Chippendale said as he pointed out the fatal shot. "The casings were back by Ponce de Leon, so he probably drove a good four or five miles until he came to rest."
That was before crashing into a guardrail near the Toldeo Blade exit.
"His brother kinda steered it [Miller's car] until it stopped along the roadway," Chippendale said.
The miles-long crime scene shut down I-75 for hours as investigators tried to figure out who killed Miller.
Chippendale says five of the people at the club are persons of interest, and all of them have a lawyer.
Plus, there's another problem.
"The issue that we were running into is all the witnesses, even the ones that we don't believe had anything to do with the shooting, nobody wants to talk," Chippendale said.
But what about DNA? Well, remember where the shell casings were.
"You have hundreds of cars that ran over the casings and everything else," Chippendale said. "There's still hope, and I'm sure there's DNA on those casings that we will find out eventually."
There's only so much DNA to work with though.
"We don't want to use up all of our evidence because next week they could come out and say they have the ability to pull DNA off of these," Chippendale explained.
So for now, Chippendale has to go through what he does know, but needs your help.
"If we have somebody that wants to say that they were there and they observed who was the one that was in the vehicle," he said.
Even without that, the case must push forward.
"I do look at it every day," Chippendale said. "We will make sure you guys are held accountable for this."
If you know anything about the murder of Javaris Miller, you're asked to call North Port Police or Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers.
