Unsolved Murder - Stacey Gately

DOB:4/27/68   DOD: 4/08/93

A call came into dispatch around 9:40 a.m. on April 8, 1993. The caller stated that there was a white male in a white vehicle who appeared to be dead in the parking lot of Lincoln Courts.

When the officer arrived he found the white Ford Mustang backed into a parking space in front of 116 D Lincoln Courts. Inside was the body of a white male who appeared to be in his early twenties. His body was slumped over on it’s right side, dried blood was present.

After questioning some of the residents of Lincoln Courts, one person stated that around 4:00 a.m. she had heard shots and someone shouting Five-O. The phrase Five-O was slang for undercover officers. While researching this case, several officers mentioned that the car Stacy was driving was the same make and color an undercover drug officer had been driving in that area. They felt this shooting was a case of mistaken identity.

I talked to Stacy’s mother, Mrs. Gatley, who told me Stacy was working at Safeway Warehouse at the time of his death. He lived in a house on the family farm about a mile from his parents. He’d just purchased the Mustang the previous Saturday.

His mother said he was a hard worker and a devoted father to his two children, a son 7 and a daughter 3. Information came back to her via one of his co-workers that a guy who had only worked with them for three months at the warehouse had repeatedly asked Stacy to drive him home the night of April 7th. The co-worker is convinced it was a set up. Stacy left work that night thinking he was helping someone get home to his family. Little did he know it was the last night of his life.

Someone knows a lot more than they are telling. Seven years have passed, maybe they feel they can come forward now with the answers to this senseless crime.

If you have any information about this or any other case we have covered please call Crime Stoppers at 424-8477 or the Jackson Police Department 425-8400.