Family Renews Plea for Answers 20 Years After Jason Haynes Murder

Brian Haynes found his 22-year-old son Jason on the sidewalk outside their Creek Ridge Road home in Greensboro, keys clenched in one hand and sunglasses in the other. It was around 3:30 a.m. on March 27, 2006. Jason had been shot. Twenty years later, no one has been charged, and Brian is again asking publicly whether anyone in this city knows what happened that night.

The evening before, Jason had gone out with a friend after receiving his tax refund. He had recently lost his job at UPS and was living with Brian, but his father describes him plainly: "He was a pretty good kid coming up. Really good." Brian had glanced out his front window around 3:15 a.m. and seen his friend Dave's car idling in the driveway with both doors open, but assumed everything was fine. About 15 minutes later the phone rang. "It was Dave calling me, and asking me, 'Did Jason make it back into the house?' And I said, 'No. I thought he was with you.' And he said, 'No. I think he got shot,'" Brian recalled. He ran outside. "I rolled him over. He had his keys in one hand and his sunglasses in the other hand, and I didn't see any blood or anything. I started trying to check for a pulse." Brian performed CPR until EMS arrived. At the hospital, Jason was pronounced dead.

Investigators questioned friends in the immediate aftermath, the family says, but detective contact slowed and eventually stopped. Greensboro police have confirmed there are currently no new leads in the case.

Two decades, however, is a long time in forensics. The ATF's National Integrated Ballistic Information Network has expanded substantially since 2006, now linking shell casings across jurisdictions in ways that weren't broadly operational when Jason was killed. Advances in wet-vacuum DNA sampling can now recover usable genetic profiles from porous surfaces like concrete, potentially revisiting physical evidence that yielded nothing under older methods. Anonymous digital tip platforms have also lowered the barrier for anyone who has carried knowledge about that night for the past 20 years without knowing where to take it.

What has shifted less dramatically is caseload pressure. GPD's Homicide Squad handles cold cases alongside active homicides, suicides, and all unattended deaths citywide. The family's public push, timed to the 20th anniversary, is partly a calculation that renewed public attention can accomplish what budget cycles haven't.

Jason's memory is alive in other ways. In December 2025, his younger brother named his newborn son Jason. "I love that little booger," Brian said. "It's tough to spoil a two-month-old, but if I can, I will."

Anyone who knows Jason's whereabouts that night, has information about the firearm used, or was anywhere near Creek Ridge Road in the early hours of March 27, 2006 is urged to come forward. Anonymous tips can be submitted to Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000, where calls are not recorded and no caller ID is captured, or online at ggcrimestoppers.com. Tipsters who want to speak directly with a detective can reach GPD's Homicide Squad at 336-373-4391 or 336-574-4030. Greensboro police are offering up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.