CLEVELAND — A family is pleading for answers six years after their loved one was killed.
The family of Stephen Halton, Jr. doesn’t believe the case is cold, but it remains unsolved after six years, and they hope someone will come forward with information to help detectives solve the crime.
“You start realizing once someone is gone what you miss about them and what you have taken for granted,” said Tanesha Moss, Stephen Halton, Jr.’s sister. “I just miss seeing his smile light up a room and him laughing and him just being happy to be amongst those he loved.”
Moss misses her brother’s devotion to family. She described him as a quiet but genuine man, interested in technology and graphic design but content to be behind the scenes.
His mother, Sheila Halton, also spoke of her son’s love for family, describing him as a proud “mama’s boy.”
“He loved his children, loved his wife,” Sheila Halton said. “[He] and his sister were best friends, and he loved his dad.”
The man family members call Stevie was killed on Jan. 11, 2014, on his way to work at the Cleveland Clinic.
“He didn’t make it there. He made it to the bus stop,” Moss said.
That day, family members knew something wasn’t right when Stevie didn’t answer text messages.
“He used to always put an inspirational quote up on Facebook and he had not put anything up that day,” Moss said.
Moss' father, also named Stephen Halton, called the Cleveland Clinic, from which he had recently retired, and found out his son was a “no-call, no-show” for work that day. That night, homicide detectives told the family the news—that their son, brother, husband and father had been killed.
“And I will never forget that day as long as I live,” Moss said.
Six years later, there are few answers. The family said police can’t figure out a motive for this crime.
“It’s just something that the family is living with. I don’t think it actually gets any easier,” said Antoine Moss, Tanesha’s husband, who joined the family after Stevie’s death.
The family survives through the pain, though.
“Nothing but the grace of God, but even with that, some days are not easy,” Tanesha Moss said.
The family feels Stevie’s presence through his two children, who were five and three years old when their father died.
“They are realizing more and more that Daddy’s not coming back, he’s not here,” Tanesha Moss said.
That’s why they want help finding the person who took Stevie from them.
“Our family deserves that closure, but most of all, the children need to have closure for their lives when they’re able to understand everything that’s going on,” Sheila Halton said.
Stephen Halton, Stevie’s father, urged those with information to come forward.
“There’s no way that you can have a clear conscience and know that you know exactly who killed our son, who murdered him on the street,” Stephen Halton said.
The information could be small, Tanesha Moss acknowledged, but it could be the missing piece of the puzzle that allows her family to heal.
“I’m begging you, if not for anyone else but for the sake of his kids, to allow us to give them the answer of the question that has been haunting them and our family for six years,” Tanesha Moss said.
News 5 reached out to Cleveland police regarding the case of Stephen Halton, Jr. and received the following statement:
Detectives continue to investigate. Anyone with information regarding this matter can contact investigators by calling homicide at 216-623-5464 or report anonymously via crimestoppers.
