From left, Gregory Schoonover and Lawrence County Sheriff Ryan Everett

Lawrence County’s sheriff is begging the public to help solve the 2024 murder of an Armed Forces veteran.

On June 21, 2024, deputies responded to a home invasion and homicide at the Smith Ferry Road home of victim Gregory Schoonover, a 71-year-old disabled Navy veteran.

In July 2024, Sheriff Ryan Everett said he and his investigators had already spent hundreds of hours on the case.

“This is one of those investigations that has gone back and forth, left and right, up and down and upside down,” he said at the time. “We are nowhere near done and won’t be until the responsible party/parties is/are arrested and brought before a judge and jury.”

This week, Everett said the investigation has “hit stone walls off of each and every lead.”

“I’m begging for the public’s help in solving this case,” said Everett in a Metro Crime Stoppers video. “If a group of thugs can break into the home of a 71-year-old U.S. Navy veteran and assault him, kill him, and rob him, they can do the exact same thing to any one of you. Again, I’m begging for the public’s help in solving this case.”

A $1,000 reward has been offered by a Lawrence County business owner for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Schoonover’s death, and the sheriff asked other businesses to consider adding to the reward total.

“If you classify yourself as a friend of his and you have information, you owe it to him to come forward,” Everett said in July 2024. “As an American citizen, you owe it to him to come forward if you have any potential information. As a living, breathing human being with a soul and a conscience, you owe it to him to forward any helpful information to us.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office at 601-587-2961 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 601-582-STOP. Crime Stoppers can also be reached online at P3tips.com or by texting **tips. Crime Stoppers asks for information only, not the tipster’s name.