Three Images Exist of the Last People to Be Seen With Hagos Melake, Yet His Murder is Still Unsolved

It's been almost 10 years since Hagos Melake was found murdered five hours after meeting two people at a St. Paul, Minnesota restaurant. A grainy surveillance image of someone using his ATM card may show the last person to see him alive.

Hagos emigrated from Eritrea to St. Paul with his father and younger sister when he was 6 years old. He was studying computer science at nearby Inver Hills Community College and loved going out to dinner with family. His sister fondly recalls that Hagos loved a buffet, and described him as a sweet, fun-loving computer geek.

Hagos was last seen leaving the Hunan Garden Restaurant in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota, around 1:30 am on August 29, 2013. He had taken the bus there alone, but a witness told investigators they saw Hagos leave with two individuals in a car—a man with a shaved head, and another individual whose gender is not known with tattoos on one arm. Then, at 4:30 am, an unidentified woman was seen on surveillance footage using Hagos' credit card at an ATM in Minneapolis.

Police were later called at approximately 6:40 am to a parking lot on the 5700 block of Hamline Avenue North in Shoreview, Minnesota, with reports that witnesses had seen someone laying on the ground near a building on that block. When police arrived they found Hagos, who had been shot and killed; he did not have any forms of identification on him.

Where is the case today?

There is currently a reward of $1,000 for any information identifying the unknown individuals that leads to an arrest. It was also reported that Hagos had been robbed two weeks prior to his murder. It is still unclear if that event led to his death. Hagos had made an appointment to meet with a police officer regarding that previous robbery the day he was killed.

A press conference was held shortly after Hagos' murder in September 2013. His sister who is leading the charge to get answers for her brother, just days earlier, had written her a letter telling her how proud he was of her. This case remains unsolved, with authorities asking for any information related to the individuals in the surveillance images or details around events that night.