Parents enter quest for answers in son's death

VIRGINIA BEACH

Twenty-year-old Jeremy Powers had been drinking at a party June 28, his mother said, when a fight broke out. Powers was knocked unconscious, but he wasn't bleeding when he was carried to a bedroom.

That night, he vomited repeatedly and his friends thought he would sleep off the booze. But he never regained consciousness and by morning, Jeremy Powers was dead.

A medical examiner said Powers had sustained a blow to his head, which caused severe bleeding. Investigators doubted that the trauma came from a blunt object but said it could have happened during a fall.

Despite numerous interviews of witnesses, it's still unclear what happened. Now, Powers' family wants to know whether a person inflicted a fatal blow and, if so, that the person be charged.

With the case still under investigation, the Powers family has taken extraordinary steps to find answers, going as far as bringing witnesses to the detective bureau.

Nothing has helped, and the case remains unsolved. Some witnesses fear that the three carloads of uninvited guests who crashed the party were gang members, said Diane Powers, Jeremy's mother. No one wants to be a "snitch," she said.

"We just want justice," Diane Powers said.

That night, police were dispatched to the 300 block of 33rd St. for a call that people were fighting. No one was outside when officers arrived. There was no answer to a knock on the door and the officer left, police spokeswoman Margie Long said.

Jeremy Powers had gone to sleep. When his friends checked on him at 11:30 the next morning, he didn't respond, Long said.

For the next several months, Diane Powers said she felt like a detective. She called the last few numbers he dialed on his cell phone. She found some people who were willing to talk.

Diane Powers and her husband, Stephen, continued to gather statements from the partygoers, meeting potential witnesses in apartment complexes and parking lots.

"My wife is constantly trying to stir the pot," Stephen Powers said.

The problem was that the witnesses told Powers and police different stories. Some said they were too drunk to remember anything that would help the investigation.

"The kids that say they were Jeremy's friends should do the right thing," Diane Powers said. "I'm not going to say he was kid who didn't get in trouble, but Jeremy didn't deserve this."

As winter came and still there were no answers, Diane Powers posted a bulletin on a social networking site. One person responded but reneged on an agreement to talk to detectives, saying he feared retaliation from a gang.

The Powerses still are seeking evidence - and answers.

"What choice do I have?" she said. "I'm not going to stop until justice is served. I don't know what else to do."

Duane Bourne, (757) 222-5150, duane.bourne@pilotonline.com