As New York City Struggles to Solve Old Murders, Families Lose Trust in the Homicide Investigation Process

This article was originally published on Feb 16 5:00am EST by THE CITY

This story was published in partnership with CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and the Tow Foundation.

Janifer Taylor remembers being awakened by gunshots just before 6:30 a.m. on the day her daughter, Dawn Peterson, a 39-year-old mother of two, was killed.

She ran down the stairs of the Jamaica, Queens, home they shared to the picture window on the first floor. Outside, she saw a body lying motionless on the ground.

“I saw the shape and right away I knew it was the shape of my daughter,” Taylor told THE CITY. In the early morning light, Dawn looked dead already.

That was more than one year ago, on Dec. 17, 2021. Recovered surveillance footage from the day shows a man in a hooded sweatshirt point a gun at Dawn and fire several times.

Dawn, who had been on her way to work as a school bus matron, fell to the ground, and then the gunman shot her several more times. Then, he’s seen getting into a silver sedan and driving off.

Taylor says she doesn’t know why her daughter would be targeted, and police have yet to make any arrests in the killing.

“It’s nine bullets in my daughter,” Taylor said. “We need answers, some kind of way.”

In the months since, Taylor notes, she has heard police and elected officials — including Mayor Eric Adams — pledge to curb crime and hold perpetrators accountable. But she reached the one-year anniversary of her daughter’s murder with few answers, and with fading trust in the systems responsible for seeking justice for her killing.

“It seems like they dropped this case and go to the next one,” Taylor said. “They don’t care about my case anymore, that’s what it feels like.”

To Taylor, it seems…