‘There’s a killer among us’: Family seeks justice on one-year anniversary of Detroit man’s murder

DETROIT – The family of 45-year-old Vladimir Rene is asking the public for their help solving his murder on the one-year anniversary of his death.

His sister, Natacha Rene, remembers the phone call she received early in the morning on March 27, 2024.

“He had been unconscious and was laying in the street,” said Natacha, who went on to say, “I thought maybe he was hit by a car or anything, it was a number of scenarios going through my mind.”

Vladimir, a disabled veteran who struggled with mental illness, had returned to Detroit to care for his ailing mother.

He was discovered just half a block from the family home.

Things became even more difficult when they learned what had actually happened to him.

“I saw the savage beating that he received.” Kathy Slate says a home surveillance camera in the area of Hilldale and Shields in the Cranes Woods neighborhood recorded the attack. What started as a verbal altercation escalated, they say, even after Vladimir tried to walk away.

“He walked away, this person came up from behind him and continued to beat him with something in their hand after he fell, I could no longer see him, but I could see that person just wailing on him,” added Slate.

He died from his injuries days later, on April 1, 2024, at the hospital.

“He was a husband, a father, to two boys, of course, an older brother,” said Natacha, who says her brother should be here to watch his sons graduate from college and middle school this spring.

She says the family has been robbed by the person who took his lif,e and she does not want to see that happen to anyone else. “I would really love for somebody to step forward because there’s a killer among the people of Cranes woods, it’s your brother, it’s your cousin, it’s your homebody, it’s your neighbor across the street, the guy who lives next door.”

We checked in with Detroit Police, who say the investigation remains active.

The video the family referenced was recorded from a distance and doesn’t provide many clues on who the attacker is.

They’re asking anyone with information to call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.