14-Year Cold Case in Illinois Reopened with Charges

Sooner or later, justice will find you one way or another. There is hope that might be the case now for a 14-year-old cold case in Illinois that is open again with homicide charges finally filed against a suspect.

It was February 17, 2011 when the East St. Louis Police Department asked for the help of the Illinois State Police as they investigated the death of 40-year-old Truman Lee Smith of Irondale, Missouri. Police believed Smith was making a delivery as a driver in the vicinity of the 2600 block of McCausland Avenue in East St. Louis. He was approached by an armed male who demanded money. Truman Lee Smith was shot during the altercation that followed, but was able to describe what had happened to authorities before he died of his injuries.

The Illinois State Police (ISP) Division of Criminal Investigation Zone 6 Major Crimes Unit has been investigating this homicide for the past 14 years since and have finally brought first-degree murder charges against 34-year-old Alan Davis of East St. Louis, Illinois. Those charges were filed in the St. Clair County State’s Attorney Office on May 22, 2025 more than 14 years after the alleged crime.

The report says that Alan Davis of East St. Louis was already being held at the Graham Correctional Center in Hillsboro, Illinois for an unrelated 2012 conviction for aggravated battery with a firearm.