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Five years after Downtown bartender Jamie Stickle was found dead in a burned-out Jeep in front of her North Side apartment, her friends are preparing a memorial for her — again. And they are still left with the same unanswered questions.
“The police, I kind of gave up on them,” says Stickle’s mother, Marge Walls, of Uniontown.
At 3:45 a.m. on Feb. 8, 2002, emergency crews found Stickle’s Wrangler fully engulfed in flame, and 33-year-old Stickle dead at the wheel, outside her isolated apartment on Chesbro Street. She had spent the night working at, and then visiting, several Liberty Avenue bars. She had also experienced a painful breakup with a long-time live-in girlfriend that week. A trail of blood led from her front door to the Jeep, along with scattered money, mace and makeup.
Yet the police have been unable to rule her death a homicide because the cause of the fire remains unknown, and no marks of other trauma were detectable during the autopsy on her badly charred body.
“Can we get a ruling on the death?” says a frustrated Scott Noxon, who describes Stickle as “a close friend.
“I think this [memorial] is probably going to be the end of it — it’s probably already in the cold-case file,” he adds. “We wanted to do one last thing to remember her.”
Noxon is currently the owner of Pegasus and Sidekicks, where Stickle once worked, and he is leading the effort to decorate the 800 and 900 blocks of Liberty Avenue with luminaria and ribbons on Feb. 8. He will also be handing out buttons to bar patrons with the slogan “United for Jamie” — the name of the group that, five years ago, raised a $25,000 reward for information about Stickle’s death. The reward remains unclaimed at the local Lambda Foundation, says Walls.
“It’s still an open case,” says Pittsburgh Police spokesperson Diane Richard, adding that “no determination if it’s actually a homicide” has been made even today. “But it is pending further investigation.”
“I always kind of wish that there was” a break in the case, says Walls. “It amazes me, in that big city, no one has come forward.”
This article appears in Feb 8-14, 2007.
I truly hope the person whom ever did this to my cousin “pays
for this. She did not deserve to die. I don’t understand why people have such a cold heart. :/ I miss her deeply & I know my family and My Aunt Marge misses her daughter everyday and thinks about her. Jamie we miss you and so loved by so many people. Hope the person who did this rotts in hell. I wish you were here to talk to. Love ya!
Samantha, this is Tony Rubino. I owned a bar downtown when Jamie was killed. i check the internet from time to time to see if there is any new info when I came across this post. hope all is well with the family especially Marge..my e mail is drubino5@hotmail.com. I realize this post is old and you may not see this. I think about jamie all the time.
ask marge to e mailme if she can at drubino5@hotmail.com my phone is 727-455-9309..i am in florida now
love to the family
tony rubino