The Marshall Project and St. Louis Public Radio today announced Remember Me, a community-centered art installation and reporting project that honors the lives of homicide victims in St. Louis. The ambitious collaboration spans public art, original reporting, resources for community members and a series of public conversations and events.
A groundbreaking 2024 investigation by The Marshall Project, St. Louis Public Radio and APM Reports showed that over 1,000 murders in the last decade in St. Louis remain unsolved. Building on this reporting, Remember Me honors the lives of those who have been killed, and looks at the impact on the thousands of friends and family members who have had to move on with their lives without a sense of justice and closure.
“This series was conceived to create space for families to remember their loved ones in joy, not pain — and help the world see more broadly the fullness of their lives, not just the way they died,” said Raghuram Vadarevu, who oversees the nonprofit news organization's visual journalism, and who led the project at TMP with engagement editor Nicole Lewis.
“In addition to the moving portraits, the series provides shareable, community-informed resources that offer guidance on grief, healing and public safety in the absence of justice,” said Lewis, who oversees TMP's efforts to reach people most affected by the justice system.
“Remember Me honors and uplifts the lives of our community members whose lives have been senselessly taken,” said Brian Munoz, St. Louis Public Radio’s Visuals Editor. “Our hope is that this project fosters meaningful, solutions-driven dialogue that centers the voices of those most impacted and helps us build deeper empathy with our neighbors.”
The project is anchored by a public art installation, opening Aug. 11th, which features six original portraits by local artist Cbabi Bayoc. Bayoc’s vivid illustrations depict each person as their families remember them: full of life and love. Bayoc, a St. Louis-based visual artist, created the portraits to help restore a sense of wholeness to the affected families and larger community. The portraits will be displayed in multiple venues across the St. Louis region; an accompanying QR code will take viewers to a site where they can listen to audio vignettes of a loved one talking about the person who was killed and view online memorials.
The Marshall Project and St. Louis Public Radio have also produced extensive resources for affected families in St. Louis and nationwide. One resource includes tips for dealing with grief, crowdsourced directly from families who have lost loved ones. This tipsheet includes grief support organizations around St. Louis that are recommended by families who have lost loved ones to violence. Another set of resources highlights the importance of community engagement in homicide investigations and outlines what families need to know when working with police and what police need to know when working with the community. This “explainer” walks readers through the basics of a homicide investigation.
These resources will be shared via both media outlets’ websites; postcards with a QR code shared at events starting in August; and through partnerships with community organizations to get the important materials in front of families that need them most.
Bayoc’s portraits will be on view in the CURIOSITY Building from Monday, Aug. 11, until Friday, Sept. 12; viewing is by request via email, vanessa@stl.org. To further explore Bayoc’s work and the impacts of these unsolved homicides in the St. Louis area, a series of live events and conversations will be held starting in August, exploring topics like art and memory, community grief and collective healing.
Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025 | 5:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. CT
In this conversation, we’ll hear from The Marshall Project - St. Louis’ engagement reporter Ivy Scott; St. Louis Public Radio’s justice correspondent Rachel Lippman; and Ronda Williams, mother of a homicide victim, about the state of unsolved homicide investigations now, and where we need to go from here.
Bright & Early Artist Talk with Cbabi Bayoc: An Unexpected Journey
Friday, Aug. 15, 2025 | 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. CT
In his talk, Bayoc will explore his creative path and his new work on view, Remember Me, a series of poignant portraits for The Marshall Project and St. Louis Public Radio.
All events will be held at The CURIOSITY Building, 3033 Locust Street, St. Louis, MO 63103. The events are free and open to the public. RSVP at this link is encouraged but not required. Please RSVP if you’d like to receive information about this series and future events. Additional events after August will be announced soon.
To learn more about St. Louis’ unsolved murders, read The Marshall Project, St. Louis Public Radio and APM Reports’ original reporting, Why 1,000 Homicides in St. Louis Remain Unsolved.
All resources, tributes and reporting for Remember Me will be available at the following links:
The Marshall Project: https://www.themarshallproject.org/remember-me
St. Louis Public Radio: https://www.stlpr.org/remember-me
For more information, please contact Ebony Reed at ereed@themarshallproject.org
About The Marshall Project:
The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system. The Project aims to have an impact through journalism, rendering the system more fair, effective, transparent and humane. The Marshall Project’s reporting has exposed faults in the criminal justice system that perpetuate racial and economic inequities; cost taxpayers billions of dollars a year; are toxic to those it incarcerates — and often to those who work in it; and leaves victims feeling retraumatized by a system that is supposed to protect them. Our work finds that current inadequacies make police, courts, and prisons repositories of crises they are ill-equipped to handle, including mental illness, addiction, and poverty. The Marshall Project partners with both national and local media outlets to reach diverse audiences, and to inform criminal justice experts with fresh and accurate information to do their best work.
About St. Louis Public Radio:
St. Louis Public Radio (STLPR) is a nonprofit media organization delivering accuracy and understanding. Its team of local reporters and producers push the boundaries of storytelling, bringing context and humanity to the issues and ideas that affect life in the metro region, Rolla, Quincy and rural areas in Missouri and Illinois. Reflecting the voices of the community, STLPR engages in crucial conversations that bring people together. With award-winning local news coverage, original podcasts, jazz and classical music channels, and national and international news from NPR and the BBC, STLPR is a listener-supported service of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.