Man, 75, Pleads Guilty to Murdering Neighbor, Dumping Body
August 8, 2024

ST. LOUIS, MO ( August 8, 2024) — David Leonard Harvey, 75, pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder, burglary, abandonment of a corpse and evidence tampering in the August 11, 2022 killing of his former girlfriend and neighbor, Carolyn Jenkins, 63, in the 3100 block of Franklin Avenue in the city’s Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood. Harvey was sentenced to 20 years in prison.


Harvey and Jenkins lived on the same floor of the Metropolitan Village Apartments and had been in a relationship. Surveillance video from the apartment building showed Jenkins entering her apartment, Harvey rushing in behind her and leaving a few minutes later. A few days later, police responding to a request for a wellness check from Jenkins’s family found her apartment in disarray with blood on the floor; Jenkins was not there.


About 2 a.m. the next morning, surveillance video showed Harvey and an accomplice entering Jenkins’s apartment and wheeling her covered body out on a dolly and onto the elevator. Police found Jenkins’s body about a week later under a pile of trash in a nearby wooded area.


Harvey has prior convictions for burglary, and weapons and drug charges. In 2015 he was charged with killing a pregnant woman, 30-year-old India Blake, but was acquitted.


The case was prosecuted by Chief Trial Attorney Marvin Teer and Assistant Circuit Attorney Jessica Vestal.


“The defendant had a long criminal history that culminated in this murder,” said Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore. “His actions after the victim’s death show his lack of decency. The guilty plea and sentencing cannot bring her back, but hopefully will bring closure for her family.”

          ###

For Immediate Release

For more information contact:

Amber Raub

Public Information Officer

St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office

rauba@stlouiscao.org

314-589-6233 (office)

314-312-9912 (cell)

More News

Seal of the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office, with text:
October 28, 2025
Anwar Shands, 43, was convicted of first-degree murder and armed criminal action for the 2020 killing of his cousin Mallam Amir Tifah in St. Louis’ Lewis Place.
Seal of the Circuit Attorney for the City of St. Louis, Missouri.
October 20, 2025
Derrick Smith, 41, was sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years for the 2024 fatal shooting of his girlfriend, Norma Reano, in St. Louis’s Dutchtown neighborhood.
Seal of the Circuit Attorney for the City of St. Louis, Missouri, featuring state seal and text.
October 16, 2025
Judge sentenced Jeffrey Leslie, 47, to 25 years for a failed 2023 St. Louis robbery that left accomplice Alonzo Jones dead and another victim injured in Hyde Park.