Crime Stoppers: 16-year-old fatally shot, left in vacant Milwaukee home

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Imagine dropping your teenage child off at a friend's house and you go to pick them up but they're not there. Then, you learn they're dead. It's exactly what happened to a Milwaukee mother last September. 

When you listen to Candice Dorsey describe her teenage son Shaun Dorsey, he probably sounds like your own child, or another 16-year-old you know. 

"He had this really big smile. He loved to draw. He liked to give out hugs, he loved family," said Dorsey. "He was cool, he was nice, he listened to his little rap like a lot of these kids even though I didn't approve. He would be on the Xbox all day, and he loved cars a lot." 

Dorsey, a mother of six, says her middle child -- Shaun -- always had a certain way about him: protective, skeptical, and perceptive. 

"He was always saying, 'Mama, you are always talking to people you need to be aware of your surroundings,'" said Dorsey. 

Dorsey said her son was like that until the last day she saw him. 

"He was very happy, more than normal. He just kept smiling a lot and laughing," said Dorsey. "Prior to that, he had a really bad asthma attack, he was in the house all week. I was up all night making sure he was good with his asthma medicine and breathing. He was like, 'Can I go to my friend's house?' And I was like, 'I guess.'" 

Dorsey dropped her son off at a friend's house near 47th and Marion, in the Parklawn neighborhood. 

"I'll be back to get you at 8 o'clock I told him...and he looked back at me really weird this time...and when I came back to pick him up, he wasn't there. He didn't answer his phone, no Instagram, and I never seen him again until the day I identified him,"Dorsey  said. 

That was on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. 

Dorsey said she spent three days, calling, texting, driving around, searching for him. She called police Saturday, Sept. 17, because she didn't want to overreact like she had in the past. 

"I was just trying to be strong and hope that he's OK, maybe he will call back. It was terrible," Dorsey said. 

Milwaukee Police Detective Vincent Lopez said Shaun Dorsey's body was found four days later in a vacant house on North 38th Street, near Center and Hadley. He'd been shot and left in the basement. 

"The other interesting fact of this case is that on Sunday the day before he was located, there was chatter...that Shaun Dorsey was in a house, but he was not found yet. So, it's obvious that his friends or associates knew that something happened to him some time over the weekend," said Detective Lopez. 

"I try to think good about everybody, but everybody is not your friend and I learned that from him. He always said that to me," said Dorsey. 

Still, Dorsey is hoping that her son's so-called friends -- or anyone who knows who killed him -- would just be kind enough to come forward to help ease the pain and guilt she'll now live with forever. 

"I always protected my kids. I wasn't there to protect him. I wasn't," Dorsey said. People need to stop being evil out here. Why do we hate each other so much? Why is it so much crime in the inner city? Why are people so mad at each other, who gives you the right to take somebody's life? A kid. He was 16, he would have been 17 three days later. Who does that and then leave him in the basement like he's nobody? I will never see his smile again, or his laugh, I will never see him get married. He had a whole life to live." 

If you know anything about this murder case, you're urged to call Milwaukee Crime Stoppers at 414-224-TIPS. You can also use the P3 Tips App. Remember your call or tip submission is always anonymous.