Mar 21, 1997359 words · 2 min
Over 250 Tips After 'Unsolved Mysteries'
March 1997: Over 250 tips pour in after 'Unsolved Mysteries'. The FBI listens in, but Las Vegas sends no one, and the hottest lead fizzles out.
Original: “Over 250 tips received after TV show’s segment on Shakur” · Las Vegas Sun · Cathy Scott · March 21, 1997
Whenever a promising tip came in at the call center, someone raised a red card, and FBI agents listened in. The NBC show Unsolved Mysteries logged more than 250 calls following its segment on Tupac’s murder. A week after the broadcast, Cathy Scott took stock in the Las Vegas Sun. “That’s a good number for us,” said producer Judy Storch, more than for a fairly solvable case in the same episode.
A Hot Tip Without a Phone Number
Operators answered the calls, and some callers were interviewed directly. Starting Monday, the tip sheets went to the Metro Police homicide unit. “We are reading every one of them,” assured Sergeant Kevin Manning.
One tip seemed hot, but fearing retaliation, the caller left no number. Police were unable to follow up on it. What remained notable: Metro had been invited to be present at the call center and sent no one. Lieutenant Wayne Petersen: “If we get one call out of a thousand, it’s worth it.”
Two Murders in the Passenger Seat
The rest of the article recapped the case and, like many articles in those days, drew a line to the murder of The Notorious B.I.G.: both sat in the passenger seat, both were coming from a big night out, and both were traveling with their label bosses, Suge Knight and Sean “Puffy” Combs.
Corrections to the archived text: Biggie was shot on March 9, 1997, not March 10. According to current knowledge, Tupac was struck four times, not three.
80 Percent Believed Tupac Was Still Alive
Nothing came of the calls. Two months later, police reported that 80 percent of the forwarded tips revolved around the idea that Tupac was still alive (see No Leads, Lots of Skepticism).
The case did not reach a courtroom until decades later, not through anonymous callers, but after Duane “Keffe D” Davis himself spoke about the night of the crime. He was found guilty of murder in Las Vegas on August 31, 2026 (not final; as of October 2026).
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