Devinn Madley’s family and friends trace his footsteps each anniversary of the night he was killed.

They follow the route he took from his family’s Maplewood apartment to a nearby neighborhood market. They stop outside and say a prayer. Then, they walk one block more, where Madley made it back toward home when he was shot.

Wednesday is their third year taking the walk, each year praying it will bring answers. The 20-year-old’s homicide from Aug. 28, 2021, remains unsolved and his mother said she needs to keep his name — and what happened to him — in the public eye.

“I want to make sure people aren’t forgetting,” Abbey Madley said. “What happened? Who did this? Somebody has to know something and someone needs to grow a conscience.”

A motive remains elusive to police and Madley’s family. Maplewood Police continue to ask anyone with information to come forward “to help us bring closure to this case and for his family,” said Lt. Joe Steiner on Wednesday. A $7,000 reward is still being offered in the case.

Through investigation, police believe three to four people were involved, though they haven’t been identified, according to Steiner.

“We don’t know what led up to his murder, but at this point we’re not ruling out robbery as a possibility,” Steiner said.

Madley’s family has said Devinn wasn’t involved in drugs or a gang, and they don’t believe he would have been targeted.

Steiner said he wanted to provide a detail that police hadn’t previously released, in the event that it might jog someone’s memory: One of Madley’s shoes, a Nike Air Jordan, was missing. Police checked the area extensively and didn’t find it.

“We have reason to believe it was taken by one of the suspects,” Steiner said, though it’s not known why.

‘Did not deserve this’

Madley worked with his mother at FedEx Ground in Mahtomedi. He was a package handler, unloading trailers, and had worked there almost two years. He helped with the family’s bills.

“He was probably the kindest kid you’d ever meet,” said James Clark, Madley’s brother, saying Devinn didn’t even like to argue. “All of this kind of blew me away because he always just went to work and came home” to play video games.

“Nobody deserves this, but he really did not deserve this. He had a lot of life left to live,” Abbey Madley said.

He preferred being home rather than out and about, but he went that day to a surprise birthday party for one of his best friends at a Woodbury restaurant. Back in Maplewood, he walked a few blocks to Maplewood Tobacco on Larpenteur Avenue. He was found shot at Larpenteur Avenue and Howard Street about 8:45 that Saturday night.

Abbey Madley was working a weekend catering job in Wisconsin and had said goodbye to her children before leaving. “I always tell them, even if I’m leaving a room, ‘I love you,’” she said. She received a call that evening, saying something had happened to Devinn.

She couldn’t reach Devinn when she called him and she started making the two-hour drive back home. “It was a very quiet, long ride and I just had a bad feeling,” she said.

Clark, older than his brother by two years, called to break the news: “He had to tell me Devinn was gone.”

A search for answers

Madley’s family keeps a memorial for him at Larpenteur Avenue and Howard Street.

A photo of Devinn Madley is displayed on a fence at a roadside memorial at Larpenteur Avenue and Howard Street. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Abbey Madley used to visit every day, but she’s pulled back. “There’s still no answers and, the more and more I think about it, knowing that he took his last breath there, it’s hard,” she said.

Clark said he makes it a priority to go to the memorial daily, “just to be here with him or talk to him,” he said. He spent time there Tuesday “because I don’t want to cry in front of everyone” during the memorial walk, he said.

The last few years have been difficult. Abbey Madley’s mother died from liver cancer exactly three months before Devinn. The birthday of Madley’s younger children, twins who are turning 22, is the day after their brother was killed.

“I’ve never seen so much hurt and sadness,” said April Cote, an aunt of Devinn’s.

Madley’s family says community members are welcome to join them on the walk on Wednesday, Aug. 28. It will begin at 8:20 p.m. outside Maple Pond Homes at 1854 Beebe Road in Maplewood. They will walk to Larpenteur Avenue and to Howard Street.

Police ask for tips

Maplewood Police continue to ask anyone with information to come forward.

Contact Lt. Joe Steiner at 651-249-2608 or Joe.Steiner@maplewoodmn.gov.

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