When 32-year-old Kevin Glen Billups was found dead inside an abandoned home on Princess Place Drive, it was a man looking after the property who discovered his body while checking on the home.
Billups, a homeless man from Huntington, West Virginia, was discovered at 4129 Princess Place Drive just before noon Jan. 29, according to Wilmington Police Department Spokeswoman Cathryn Lindsay.
The man looking after the Princess Place property knew the home had been used by homeless people in the past, Wilmington Police Department Investigator D.M. Timken said in a Crimestoppers video recently released by the police department in an effort to gain new information about the case.
“Upon his arrival he noticed trash piles outside–knew it was once again being used for homeless individuals–and went inside to check on the property. And he did find a white male face down on the floor inside the house unresponsive,” Timken said.
When the investigation began at the home, detectives had little information about the victim, Timken said.
“No ID on [the] subject and no paperwork or identification information–nothing was found in the house that would have given us a clue as to who he was or what may have happened to him,” Timken said.
But through fingerprint identification, Timken said detectives were able to identify Billups and found an out-of-state address for him. Through further investigation, detectives determined Billups’ last known local address was 811 Martin St., the Good Shepherd Center, which is a homeless shelter in Wilmington.
“There is no other information locally for Mr. Billups other than some citations he had received from our department,” Timken said.
An autopsy determined Billups’ cause of death was head trauma.
“It was discovered that there was blunt-force trauma to the man’s head causing hematomas, which were listed as the cause of his death,” Timken said.
The Crimestoppers video is the second to be released by the Wilmington Police Department for an unsolved homicide investigation this year. Investigators released a similar video last month for 20-year-old Dillon Morris, who was fatally shot near Greenfield Lake on Dec. 27, 2014. Each video can be found on the police department’s YouTube channel.
“We are asking for assistance on anyone who may know [Billups] or known associates of this gentleman that could possibly help us out,” Timken said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Wilmington Police Department at 910-343-3609 or Text-A-Tip to CRIMES. Start your message with Tip708, then type your tip. Or call Crimestoppers at 1-800-531-9845.
Christina Haley is a crime and courts reporter at Port City Daily. Reach her at (910) 772-6337 or [email protected].
