The Pixley family home in northeast Washington, DC, in August 2016
Yolanda Gayden, mother of Curtis Pixley's children, near the site where his body was found after an execution-style murder in 1991 at Langdon Park in Washington, DC
Crack and powder cocaine are the same drug; what sets crack apart is that it's freebased, often after being cooked with baking soda—either way, smoking instead of snorting gives users a more intense, immediate high. Experts hypothesize that the technique of cooking crack—which made coke more affordable—spread from New York City in the 80s. Dealers there eventually learned that a vial of crack that sold for $5 in NYC could fetch $25 in the District.Crack's effects were immediate and obvious. In 1984, 15 percent of DC's arrestees tested positive for cocaine. Just four years later, that figure had risen to 60 percent. By then, dozens of open-air drug markets had cropped up across DC's 63 square miles. A dealer who paid $600 for a half-ounce of cocaine could sell the 50 or so small rocks it yielded at $20 apiece and nearly double his money in a few short hours.
Langdon Park in northeast Washington, DC
Almost immediately, the investigation of the triple murder in Langdon Park focused on Curtis Pixley, rather than the other two victims. Gillard and Simmons were both friends of the Pixley family and connected to Curtis through his older sister Shirley––Simmons was Shirley's boyfriend, and Gillard was a close friend. Detectives learned that on the day they were killed, the three had all been at the home of one of Pixley's relatives in southeast Washington. People who were there said Simmons offered to drive Pixley and Gillard back northeast but were uncertain why they ended up at the park.
Ashley Williams, a longtime Langdon Park resident in northeast Washington, DC, in August 2016
On February 17, 25 years after the bodies of Pixley, Simmons, and Gillard were discovered, Michael Green, 44, of northeast DC, and Benito Valdez, 45, of Arlington, Virginia, were charged with first-degree murder in the triple homicide.According to court documents, authorities believe the rumor that the trio were killed in retribution for stealing a car was accurate—Valdez was allegedly the owner of the car, which contained between a half-ounce and an ounce of cocaine. Witnesses say the killers forced the three to walk from a convenience store to the park, made them lie down on the ground, and shot each in the head. Police discovered 13 empty cartridges at the scene and determined that at least two guns were used in what amounted to an execution.
Lt. Anthony Haythe at Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters in Washington, DC
The arrests may have come too late for Pixley's oldest children. Traumatized by their father's death, Lakeeya Pixley said she and her two brothers turned to lives of drugs and violence to cope with feelings of anger and abandonment that came after their father's death.Lakeeya said the family heard the gunshots that ended Pixley's life; she, her brother, and other relatives were sitting on the porch when they heard the unmistakable sound echo through the neighborhood. The next morning, Pixley's mother gave Lakeeya and her older brother Curtis Jr. strict instructions to walk along the streets that bordered the park rather than cutting through it on their way to school. Instead, the two kids headed down Hamlin Street, a short strip that runs from where they lived on South Dakota directly into the park. On the way, they met up with a cousin, Andy, and a friend from the neighborhood.
Sandra Pixley, eldest sister of Curtis Pixley, near the site of his murder in Langdon Park
A photograph of Yolanda Gayden and Curtis Pixley's children dating back to the mid 1990s. Courtesy of Yolanda Gayden