Deborah Parrish joins First Coast Crime Stoppers on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, to seek tips in her husband's slaying 13 years ago. With her are Crime Stoppers Executive Director Chase Robinson, left, and cold case homicide Detective Travis Oliver Sr. | First Coast Crime Stoppers
Published on October 13, 2025 at 1:07 pm
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Julius Richardo Parrish was gunned down 13 years ago in his Magnolia Gardens driveway — a cold case that remains unsolved today.
Parrish’s wife, Deborah, joined First Coast Crime Stoppers on Monday to plead for anyone who saw or knows what happened to the man who loved her to come forward and “don’t let that love die.”
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“We’ve got to stop this. It ain’t just about Julius Richardo Parrish; it’s about all of us — all of us have to do our part,” Deborah Parrish said, tapping the podium to emphasize each word. “We ain’t asking you to snitch. We just ask you to get involved. … Just get involved and make a difference.”
Chase Robinson, executive director of First Coast Crime Stoppers, said Monday that it is time to “give new life” to the investigation. Someone out there must know something, Robinson said during a news conference.
Solving cold cases
First Coast Crime Stoppers is a nonprofit volunteer organization formed in 2002 to encourage people to leave anonymous tips on major crimes that occur in Northeast Florida.
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Rewards for tips that lead to a conviction come from a special Florida Crime Stoppers Trust Fund grant, plus donations. The potential reward was increased last week from $3,000 to $5,000.
As of March of this year, Crime Stoppers tips have led to 4,525 arrests and over 9,000 cases cleared, the group’s website says.
In Parrish’s case, the 48-year-old man was standing with his godson in the driveway of his home on Bunche Drive at 11:30 p.m. June 30, 2012. Several rounds were fired at them from a car that sped away on West 45th Street, said Detective Travis Oliver Sr. of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit
“The victim has no reason why he should be deceased today,” Oliver said. “It is unknown why he was targeted. But we know there is someone out there who knows why. This crime scene has been worked by some of the better detectives we have on the Sheriff’;s Office in the homicide unit, but the lack of participation from the community has been a big problem with this investigation.”
Parrish had spent the day car shopping with his wife, according to Project: Cold Case, which Ryan Backmann formed in 2015 after his father was shot and killed in 2009 in a Southside shooting that remains unsolved.
Backmann and his staff have established a database of hundreds of unsolved homicides in Jacksonville and beyond to help publicize the cold cases and link families with help.
He met Parrish’s wife right after her husband was killed.
“We know there were people in the neighborhood that saw, that had information, that were scared to come forward back then,” Backmann said. “It’s been 13 years now, and there’s an increased reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest. It is our hope that after these 13 years, maybe somebody will be a bit more willing to come forward than they were in the past.”
People can leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers on all active and cold case homicides in Baker, Bradford, Clay, Duval, Nassau, and Union counties by calling (888) 845-8477 (TIPS), or at fccrimestoppers.com.
