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  "path": "/the-killing-that-wont-let-go",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-16T13:01:15.000Z",
  "site": "https://defector.com",
  "tags": [
    "Blogs Of Note",
    "Policing",
    "Stories",
    "cold cases",
    "fairfax",
    "Steve Cornejo"
  ],
  "textContent": "Grief has no expiration date, and there’s no statute of limitations on murder.\n\nTwenty-one years ago this summer, Steve Cornejo was shot in the back and died in the courtyard of an apartment complex in Fairfax, Va. Cornejo was unarmed. Brandon Gotwalt, who shot him in the back, initially told police he wasn't on the scene, then**** claimed self-defense, then admitted to flushing the spent shell and his shirt down the toilet, then admitted to carrying an illegally concealed .38 caliber handgun, then said the shooting was accidental. The shooter was never arrested or charged with any crimes.\n\n“They treated him like, ‘Oh, just another dead Latino,’” said Isabelle Janus-Clark, Cornejo’s high school classmate and childhood friend. “The police just acted like he wasn’t worth the trouble. He was worth the trouble.”",
  "title": "The Killing That Won’t Let Go"
}