Episode 134: Derontae Martin

This week’s story involves a 19-year-old young man from Park Hills, Missouri named Deronate Martin. He was beloved by his siblings, his mother Ericka Lotts and his grandmother Kimberly Lotts Robinson.


He loved football and was certainly big enough at 6’3 and 250 pounds to play the game. He had received a scholarship to play football and dreamed of playing in the NFL. He wouldn’t live long enough to even play college football. On April 25, 2021, the police were called to a home around 3 a.m. near Fredericktown, Missouri. It was the home of a white man who had posted racist material on social media. The homeowner directed a Madison County sheriff's deputy to the attic where he found the body of Derontae Martin who had allegedly shot himself to death in his left temple.


Police and a forensic pathologist had determined that he fatally shot himself. Ericka Lotts, who is Derontae's mother, said authorities concluded that Martin, 19, who was black, died by suicide and repeatedly told her that she was in denial about the nature of her son's death. Ericka claimed police and medical personnel who handled the initial death investigation were blinded by tunnel vision. And it appears she was correct in her assessment. The cause of death was changed from suicide to murder.


So the next question is, what was the motive? So who killed Derontae and why? If you have
any information about this case, please contact the FBI Missouri Office at (314) 589-2500 or the National FBI Office at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324). You can also visit the www.justiceforderontae.com website for additional information about Derontae.


* Opening audio provided by KSDK News 5 (http://www.ksdk.com)


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