On July 19, 2010 former NBA player and University of Memphis standout Lorenzen Wright’s life was tragically taken. It has been over 10 years and the case was still cold. There was a $21,000 reward for this case and still nothing happened. After finding the gun suspected have been used in the murder, authorities reminded the public of the $21,000 reward that was still outstanding in this case and soon after an arrest was made (it is unclear whether or not the reward played a role in the arrest).
46 year old, Billy R Turner of Tennessee has been charged with the murder of Lorenzen Wright.
BREAKING: I just confirmed with Deborah Marion, Lorenzen Wright’s mother that Billy Turner has been arrested for the 1st murder in the killing of her son NBA star Lorenzen Wright
— Scott Madaus (@scottmadaus) December 5, 2017
According to Wright’s wife, he was visiting Memphis in July 2010 before he went missing.
Wright’s ex-wife, Sherra Robinson Wright, had told authorities in 2010 that he left her Collierville home at about 10:30 p.m. July 18 with drugs and an unspecified amount of money, according to a Memphis police affidavit. She told authorities that Wright made a phone call to an unknown person and said he was going to flip something for $110,000. He then left in a vehicle driven by an unidentified person shortly after the call, she said.
Wright appears to have called 911 from his cellphone from a field near the TPC Southwind golf course minutes after midnight on July 19, 2010. His body was found in the area several days later, and authorities have said it was so badly decomposed that it was unclear how many times he was shot.
In a joint press conference, the Memphis Police Department and the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that Billy R Turner was indicted and arrested for the murder of Lorenzen Wright. A lot of questions that the media had were not able to be answered at this time because the investigation is still ongoing. As far as who gets the reward or who led the police to Turner, the DA said that those questions could and would not be answered at this time.
It is a tragedy that Wright’s life was taken at such a young age, but it is nice to see that even after seven years justice is still being served.