Edward Pieron turned 21 years old on Friday, July 4, 2008. To celebrate, he held a barbeque at his home in Coral Gables, Florida. He and his guests set off some fireworks in the backyard after the sun went down, but for the most part the party didn’t get too loud. The celebration carried on into the early morning hours, but there were no complaints from any of the neighbors.
Eddie, who had recently completed his junior year at the University of Miami, shared the home with three other students but they had all gone away for the holiday. Once his guests were gone, Eddie did some cleaning and then went to bed. He didn’t wake up until sometime around noon, then called his girlfriend to see if she wanted to come over for a late lunch. She told him she would be over around 2:45 pm.
Eddie’s girlfriend arrived right when she said she would, but she got no answer when she knocked on his door. The door was unlocked; knowing that Eddie was expecting her, his girlfriend decided to let herself in. She walked into a bloodbath.
Almost immediately after entering the house, Eddie’s girlfriend ran out of it, screaming loudly for help. She ran to the home of Richard Silva, who lived next door to Eddie, and banged on his front door until he answered. She was in hysterics at this point, and told Richard that her boyfriend was hurt and she needed him to call 911. Richard quickly made the call, then he and his wife grabbed their first aid kit and hurried next door to see if they could help Eddie.
As soon as they looked inside the house, they realized there was nothing they could do. There was blood on the couch and walls, and Eddie was lying on the living room floor in a five-foot wide pool of blood. It was clear that he was dead. The couple quickly ushered Eddie’s girlfriend back to their home and tried to comfort her as they waited for the police to arrive.
Officers from the Miami-Dade Police Department arrived shortly after the 911 call was placed, and immediately recognized that they were dealing with a homicide. There was a lot of blood on the floor, a few bloody footprints, and smears of blood on the furniture. They secured the home as a cri*me scene and told the dispatcher that they needed homicide detectives at the house.
There was so much blood at the scene that the cause of de*ath was not readily apparent. An autopsy would later determine that Eddie had been stabbed in his neck, causing him to bleed to dea*th. Although there were no signs of forced entry, it was clear that a struggle had taken place. Eddie had fought hard for his life.
Detectives noticed that there were bloody footprints throughout several rooms of the house; it appeared that the k*iller had ransacked the home after Eddie was dead. Some cash was missing from the home, and a safe had been taken as well. Investigators determined that the bloody prints had been made by someone wearing Puma sneakers that were a men’s size 10, likely the Voltaic model. This was the only real clue they found that might help lead to the kil*ler’s identity.
When Eddie’s mother, Pamela, learned of his de*ath, she was absolutely devastated. He was her only child, and she couldn’t understand why anyone would have wanted to mur*der him. The brutality of the crim*e shocked her. She had spoken to Eddie on his birthday, and he had been in a great mood; he didn’t indicate being worried about anything or in any kind of trouble.
Eddie had been planning to fly home to California to meet his mother on July 9th; they were then going to fly to Hawaii for a cousin’s wedding. He had sounded excited about making the trip, and told his mother he would see her then. She had no idea it would be the last conversation she would have with him.
Eddie was a native of Woodland Hills, California; he had been living in Florida since 2005 when he started classes at the University of Miami. He was majoring in biology and psychology; he had planned to go to medical school after he graduated the following year. He was well-known on campus by both students and faculty; he had many friends and was known for being an all-around great guy with no known enemies.
According to Eddie’s friends, he was friendly and very sociable, and had seemed to enjoy his time in college. He wasn’t involved in drugs or anything else that would have made him an easy target for violent cri*me, but the home he was living in had been broken into once before and his roommates had been robbed of about $600. The neighborhood, located just a few minutes from the University of Miami campus, was normally quite quiet and had a very low cri*me rate; the fact that the same home was robbed twice in just a few months was concerning to investigators but they were unable to determine if the two crim*es were connected.
Detectives noted that they were unable to find anything in Eddie’s background to suggest he was involved in any sort of sinister activity. He had no enemies; everyone investigators spoke to appeared to love him. He had a lot of friends, all of whom were devastated by his brutal de*ath. It looked like his mur*der had been a random crim*e.
While searching through the cri*me scene, detectives found a CVS receipt for a purchase made at 1:00 pm on the day of the mu*rder. The CVS was within walking distance of Eddie’s home, and he was a frequent customer there. When they checked the store’s surveillance tape, it showed Eddie enter the store alone, pick up a few items, and leave by himself. One of the things he had purchased was a case of beer; he could be seen in the surveillance video proudly showing the clerk his ID to prove he had just turned 21 years old.
Detectives gathered all the outside surveillance footage from CVS and several surrounding businesses, but saw no one who appeared to be hanging around outside the store. Despite this, they believed Eddie might have been followed home by someone who intended to rob him and then k*illed him when he resisted. Eddie would have been preoccupied with carrying the heavy case of beer and may not have noticed there was anyone coming up behind him until it was too late. Although it was a plausible theory, detectives were unable to find any evidence to substantiate it.
Investigators canvassed the neighborhood, but none of the other residents had seen anything suspicious that day. It was a holiday weekend, and many people were traveling at the time and not at home. They made several appeals to the public for information, but few tips came in about the case and the investigation soon seemed to stall.
It has been almost 13 years since Eddie was mu*rdered, and there have never been arrests in the case. Investigators think it’s possible that the ki*ller was someone Eddie and his circle of friends might have been familiar with, and they believe that some of his friends know more about the cri*me than they have admitted. Although the case has long gone cold, they still hope to obtain justice for Eddie.
Pamela admitted that Eddie’s dea*th dramatically changed her, as the future she once envisioned was taken away from her in a senseless act of violence. Eddie’s father never really got over his d*eath; he died in January 2013 without ever learning who ki*lled his son.
Edward Pieron was 21 years old when he was murd*ered in 2008. He was a gregarious and outgoing young man who was full of life and always knew how to make people laugh. He was well-liked by both his classmates and professors, and detectives have never interviewed anyone who had anything negative to say about him. He hoped to eventually become a doctor, but his dreams were taken away from him by a still-unidentified k*iller who was wearing size 10 Puma Voltaic sneakers. If you have any information about Eddie’s mur*der, please contact the Miami-Dade Police Department at 305–476–5423.
