New billboard asks for help in solving Cape Coral cold case

It has been 10 years to the day since a stunning murder at a busy Cape Coral shopping center. No arrests have been made. Now, there’s a renewed effort to solve the baffling cold case.

“I still call bull on it,” said Trish Routte.

After 32 years in law enforcement, including 24 at Crime Stoppers, Routte has a pretty good instinct about unsolved crimes.

“You cannot have a guy shot in a very public area and nobody sees anything. That just can’t happen,” said Routte.

The guy: Al Griffiths, on the job at TJ Maxx on Del Prado Boulevard, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014.

He took a smoke break, sat on the bench out front, and out of nowhere someone in the crowded parking lot shot and killed him.

“There was even an officer on the other end of that parking lot,” said Routte.

It happened so fast, that even the officer that got there almost immediately saw no signs of the shooter.

“I’m just wishing there was some way that our family could have closure,” said Claudia Marsh.

Marsh and Pam Griffiths are the victim’s sisters. They say the 10th anniversary is hitting hard.

They remember him with a familiarity that only family would.

“He was quiet, maybe a little shy. Once you got to know him very caring,” said Marsh. “He was boots on the ground taking care of our elderly parents.”

The sisters said their grief won’t relent, made worse by what they and he missed.

“I mean, there’s so much, of course, like I said, my three kids, I have a husband now that he would adore. They would have been talking, gardening and cooking nonstop,” said Marsh.

The grief grows on anniversaries and birthdays.

“So I think one of the hardest things is watching, besides my grief, my sister’s grief, the waves,” said Griffiths. “It comes and goes, I think, is watching my mother go in and out of such intense loss, grief where she, you know, can barely speak and cries right before we picked her up for her 90th.”

The sisters are mystified as to why someone would hurt their brother. So are the police.

“They didn’t find a single thing wrong with that guy. No debts, no drugs, no questionable association with anybody. Nothing,” said Marsh.

So now, a new billboard towering over a busy Cape Coral intersection asks for your help.

“And there are people out there that absolutely know what happened, and they need to come forward,” said Routte.

The family asks for something more. They ask for some sense of peace.

“I have no expectation of justice. There can be none. We just, we want to know who and why,” said Marsh.

If you have any information on this cold case, contact Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-8477. You can also submit tips online or on the P3 Tips mobile app. Remember, you can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward.