Denver Family Continues Search for Answers in 1995 Murder of Andre Price Jr.

Thirty years after her son was murdered, Susanne Price holds a six-inch-thick stack of news clippings, autopsy reports, police statements and suspect names – the product of her decades-long search for justice.

To this day, no one has been arrested for the Denver shooting that claimed Andre Price Jr.’s life on June 27, 1995. Police have never identified any suspects, despite repeated pleas for help from the public. A $30,000 cash reward for information leading to an arrest has sat untouched for years.

Now, Susanne is trying something new. She’s raising money to hire a private investigator to look into the cold case, in hopes of finally getting closure.

“I have tried everything. I don’t know what else to do,” Susanne says. “What is true, what is not, I don’t know. What I do know for sure is there are three men walking around who killed my son and nothing has been done yet.”

The decades of wondering have taken a toll on Susanne, now 71. She wears a homemade T-shirt with Andre’s face above the words “forever in my heart.” The many variations of the shirts have become a regular staple of her wardrobe. She’s been told to move on, to get over it, to forget – but she can’t. Not until the people who gunned down her only son are caught.

“My family is hurt to no end. He was everything to me,” Susanne says. “I never thought I would experience anything like this. I thought I was doing the right thing, bringing him up right. …He got along with everybody. That’s why I don’t understand what happened.”

Described as a popular young man, Andre was beloved by his many friends and family, including his four-year-old daughter and his sister, Kimberly. He was a jokester and a gifted athlete, playing basketball, baseball and bowling, Susanne says. He worked as an electrician’s apprentice and was going to school for real estate.

On June 27, 1995, Andre asked Susanne to watch his daughter while he visited his cousins’ home in Montbello. Thirty minutes later, she received a phone call telling her that Andre, who was 21 at the time, had been shot in northeast Denver.

According to police, Andre and his cousin, 22-year-old Jerry Barker, were standing outside of the home on Yuba Way when three men approached them just before 10 p.m. They briefly exchanged words, then the unknown men opened fire, injuring Barker and killing Andre. Andre was shot five times in the back, according to his autopsy report, with additional fragment wounds on his arm.

Denver police say they are still “actively investigating” Andre’s murder and have made progress, but they have not “reached the conclusion.”

“As we approach the thirty-year anniversary, the Denver Police Department expresses our sympathy to Andre Price’s family and share in their frustration that the findings of the investigation thus far have not led to an arrest,” DPD says in a statement. “Detectives continue working to hold accountable the individual or individuals who committed this tragic crime.”

In 2017, DPD Sergeant Julie Wheaton said there are many witnesses from the night of Andre’s murder, but investigators believe they “know more than what they’re telling us.” Police are still urging anyone who knows anything about the events of that evening to come forward.

“We need help from the community,” DPD says in its statement.

Susanne says many people have approached her throughout the years claiming to know what happened to Andre. Some say the gunmen mistakenly killed Andre while looking for Barker’s brother, who had reportedly recently testified as a witness in a murder trial. Others claim Barker was the target, accusing Andre’s cousin of stealing money from a gang member. Some say it was a random killing as part of a gang initiation for a sixteen-year-old boy.

Susanne says she hasn’t seen Barker since the day of the shooting, and he’s never given her answers about who attacked them.

Andre was not in a gang, Susanne says, adding that she went to great lengths to keep him busy growing up so he wouldn’t fall into serious trouble like many of his classmates at Montbello High School. Still, she fears assumptions of gang involvement and prejudice based on Andre’s race may have influenced the handling of his case.

“Because it’s just another Black kid,” Susanne says, questioning why eyewitnesses and advancements in technology have not led to a break in the case after so many years. “The case, it’s nowhere. …What are the detectives doing? I really don’t know. I call them all the time.”

Denver police declined an interview for this story.

To his family, Andre is irreplaceable. His daughter, Desirae Price, is now grown with two children of her own. Though she was just four years old when Andre was killed, she says “the hole he left has echoed through every year” of her life.

“The fact that his killer has never been found is a wound that never quite heals,” Desirae says. “It’s a weight my family still carries, especially my grandmother, who has never stopped seeking the truth. Her persistence is love in its purest form – a refusal to let his memory fade or his story go untold.”

“If telling his story brings us closer to justice, to healing, to peace, then we will keep telling it,” she adds. “Because his life mattered, and so does the truth.”

In the months after Andre’s murder, Susanne would go to his grave every day, sitting on the lawn for hours just to feel close to him, she says. Whenever she has a birthday party, she includes a photo of Andre on the invitation with the words “in remembrance.” For the last three years, she’s put every dollar from birthdays and holidays toward saving for a private investigator.

She plans to run the fundraiser for an investigator through September 28, Andre’s birthday. He would have turned 52 this year.

“Losing someone you love to murder and getting no closure is a different type of hurt,” Susanne says through tears. “I want to do what I can. They took my child and they’re still living their best lives; having babies, buying cars, buying houses and enjoying life. They took that from me.”

To donate to the fundraiser, visit gofundme.com.

Anyone with information about what happened to Andre Price Jr. is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous and receive a $30,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.