Half of Boston’s 2025 homicide cases still lacked arrests entering 2026, city data show

Unsolved cases remain a major share of Boston’s homicide total

Boston closed 2025 with 31 homicides, up from 24 in 2024, a year officials described as the city’s lowest homicide total in decades. Even as violent crime indicators were described as near historic lows, the pace of arrests in homicide investigations lagged: roughly half of 2025’s homicide cases had not resulted in an arrest by early January 2026.

The gap between the number of killings and the number of cases that move into the court system is significant because, in national crime reporting standards, a homicide case is considered “cleared by arrest” only when at least one person has been arrested, charged, and turned over for prosecution. A case can also be cleared under limited “exceptional” circumstances, such as when an identified suspect has died or extradition is denied.

What city and police figures show about 2025

At year-end public safety briefings, city leaders reported 31 homicides for 2025. Police also reported that 19 of those homicide victims died from gun violence, and that more than 100 people were shot in Boston during the year and survived. Officials described shootings and incidents of gunfire as down more than 30% compared with five-year averages, even as the homicide total rose from the prior year.

• 2025 homicides: 31 (including several deaths from earlier years later classified as homicides in 2025)
• 2024 homicides: 24 (a historic low in city reporting)
• Gun-related homicide victims in 2025: 19

How Boston tracks and publicizes unsolved homicides

The Boston Police Department maintains an “Unsolved Homicides by Year” index and separate pages summarizing individual cases where no arrest has been made. Those entries typically include the victim’s name, the date, and the location, and note that the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the manner of death to be homicide.

For 2025, the department’s unsolved-homicide listings include early-year killings such as the Jan. 21, 2025 shooting death of Kareem Daveiga-Booth on Ridgewood Street and the Jan. 30, 2025 shooting death of Leroy Ryner near Morton Street and West Selden Street. The department’s postings also include contact options for anyone with information, including an anonymous tip line and the homicide unit’s direct number.

Why arrests can lag, even in lower-homicide years

Homicide investigations often hinge on witness cooperation, forensic timelines, and charging decisions that can take months. Clearance rules also mean that an investigation can be active without being counted as solved in official reporting. The result is that a city can post comparatively low homicide totals while still carrying a substantial number of open cases into the following year.

Anyone with information about an unsolved homicide can contact the Boston Police Homicide Unit at 617-343-4470 or provide information through anonymous tip channels.