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CBS Philly
'All These Years, Nothing Is Done': Family Pleading For Justice In 10-Year-Old Cold Case Murder
"ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS) — A family is pleading for justice on a somber anniversary. Atlantic City authorities are looking to develop new leads in a 10-year-old cold case murder. The victim was a beloved grandmother, 61-year-old Joyce McKinnon, who was gunned down inside her own home on Dec. 11, 2009.
“My mom was my world,” Veronica Grant-Rooks said.
Ten years ago, Grant-Rooks heard a bang and then saw a van speed away before she called 911. A gunman had just gone to her mom’s first-floor bedroom window and fired a single shot through the glass.
“She just came home from work. Ten minutes later, you hear the gunshot,” Grant-Rooks said. “The police and ambulance started pulling up and we knew she was deceased from that point.”
McKinnon was a career casino cocktail waitress that family says didn’t have an enemy in the world. She never got to meet several of her grandchildren.
“It’s very hard around the holidays as you know. My mother was buried Dec. 22 and it’s touchy for me in December,” Grant-Rooks said. “I don’t celebrate anything.”
Ten years later, her death still causes anger and confusion.
“I miss her so much and all these years, nothing is done. Absolutely nothing,” Helen Middleton, McKinnon’s aunt, said. “Why can’t they find who done this?”
"This is my corner. Having the street named after her is something that I’m very proud of,” Grant-Rooks said.
The 1900 block of North Michigan Avenue in Atlantic City is now officially named Joyce J. McKinnon Place."
