NYC cold case murder victim's son still searching for answers after more than 4 decades

LOWER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- A cold case murder mystery in Manhattan has been going on for more than four decades, but the victim's son says he will never give up.

On August 22, 1983, Albert Garland was closing up his family's poultry business on the Lower East Side when he was shot and killed.

Eyewitness News covered the murder and spoke with his son when it happened.

All these years later, the case is still unsolved.

This week, Garland's son traveled from Florida to New York to speak with detectives.

"I'm really appealing to the public in general to help these detectives out who have really gone to all sources of information they possibly have, could have, and they haven't gotten the results they need to make an arrest," Gordon Garland told Eyewitness News back when the murder happened.

Garland is still appealing to the public for help after his father's murder nearly 43 years ago.

"When I first got out of the Uber, that truck right there AG Construction, Al Garland. Al, my father. So the truck is right there by the front door. The truck's right there," Garland said.

Albert Garland was an Army Veteran and a married father of three. He helped run the family business, which was a live poultry market at the intersection of Delancey and Pitt on the Lower East Side.

"When we came up, I saw the crime scene. I got through the people, got my mother through, and detectives met us at the door and told us he was gone. I said, look, she can't come in. Let me take a look, you know, to identify him. And I did, and he was like, it's like 5 or 6 feet off the front door, little pool of blood, you know. And it was clear somebody shot him in the back," Garland said.

Across the street used to be an auto body shop, a small grocery store and a cafe.

But there were no surveillance cameras anywhere.

Garland posted flyers for information and offered a $3,000 reward, but still the case went cold.

"Crimestoppers works because you're involved. If you have information about a violent crime call Crimestoppers at 212-577-TIPS," Garland said.

"And as far as my mom goes, I think she will be meeting with him soon. She'll be 96 Monday, two weeks ago, when I visited, she was saying, did you see your father? He was here earlier," Garland said.

Nearing yet another anniversary of his father's murder, the 64-year-old is again meeting with cold case investigators on Friday.

"I am not kidding myself. I know that 40, almost 43 years later, probably the shooter or shooters are long gone. They met their maker. If I don't engage it, it's gone. Just like the building is to our left, you know," Garland said.

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