Violent Start to 2021 Leaves Three Men Dead Across Mobile County

Mobile County closed the first weekend of 2021 with three separate deaths, leaving investigators working multiple cases as the new year began. The string of fatalities, spanning less than a single day, put homicide detectives with two different law enforcement agencies to work before the first full week of January was underway. Two of the deaths came in a shooting that claimed two men at once, while the third unfolded separately in an afternoon discovery that has lingered with investigators. Authorities have not said whether any of the weekend deaths are connected, and anyone with information is urged to contact Mobile police or Crime Stoppers.

Two Men Killed in Height Street Shooting

The deadliest incident came Sunday morning, when two men were shot to death in a double homicide on Height Street in Mobile. The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office and Mobile police identified the victims as 30-year-old Shane Dulaney and 45-year-old George Snyder. Authorities have not announced any arrests in the case, and no motive has been publicly disclosed. The identification of two victims in a single incident immediately made the shooting the most serious crime of the young year in the county, and it drew investigators from multiple agencies to the scene within hours.

Height Street runs through a residential section of Mobile where houses sit close to the street and neighbors know one another’s routines, the kind of area where a burst of gunfire on a Sunday morning carries through the blocks. A double homicide in such a setting typically brings a heavy law enforcement response — patrol officers securing the scene, detectives canvassing for witnesses, and crime scene technicians documenting evidence before the block can return to anything like normal. For residents, the investigation means repeated visits from officers asking whether anyone heard shots, saw vehicles leaving quickly, or noticed anything out of place in the hours before the bodies were found.

The involvement of both the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office and Mobile police reflects the way major cases are worked in the county. The sheriff’s office covers the unincorporated areas and smaller municipalities that lack their own investigative divisions, while the Mobile Police Department handles the city itself, and the two agencies routinely share resources, intelligence and personnel when a case crosses jurisdictional lines. Identifying both Dulaney and Snyder as victims in the same shooting signaled early on that investigators were treating the case as a single event rather than two separate shootings, which shapes everything from how evidence is cataloged to how witnesses are interviewed.

With no arrests announced and no motive disclosed, the public details in the case were deliberately limited, as they often are in the early stages of a homicide investigation. Detectives hold back information that could compromise their ability to test confessions or evaluate tips, and they avoid releasing theories that might taint witness recollections. What remained clear was the toll: two men dead, a family for each of them, and a case file that would occupy investigators well beyond the first days of January.

Father Finds Son Dead Sunday Afternoon

In a separate case, 27-year-old Troy Barnhill was found dead by his father early Sunday afternoon in what officials described as a gruesome scene. Details about how Barnhill died have not been released as the investigation continues. The discovery added a second death investigation to a Sunday that was barely half over, and it fell to a father to make the kind of find that no parent is ever prepared for.

The circumstances of the discovery — a family member arriving to check on a young man and instead finding him dead — are among the most difficult that investigators handle, both because of the trauma to the family and because loved ones who find a body often become initial witnesses in the case. Their statements about who visited, when he was last seen alive and whether anything seemed out of place in the preceding days all become part of the record. Officials’ decision to withhold the cause and manner of Barnhill’s death while the investigation continues is standard practice when the evidence has not yet firmly established what happened, and it leaves open the question of whether the death will ultimately be classified as a homicide, an accident or something else entirely.

The discovery carried a painful echo for the Barnhill family. Troy’s older brother, Travis Barnhill, was killed in 2016; his body was found days after he disappeared, stuffed into a garbage can on a property off Cemetery Road. For a family to lose one son to violence and then, years later, find a second son dead under circumstances authorities will not yet describe is a burden almost impossible to overstate, and it turned an already difficult weekend into a fresh round of grief for people who had lived through it before.

The 2016 case that preceded it remains part of the family’s history with the local justice system. When Travis Barnhill vanished, the days of searching ended with the discovery of his remains in a garbage can on a property off Cemetery Road, a detail that made the case stand out even in a county that sees its share of violent deaths. Deaths in which a victim is concealed after being killed present particular investigative challenges, since the movement and hiding of a body can obscure where and when the killing actually occurred. Whether anyone was ever held accountable in that case, the memory of it shaped how the family and the community received the news of Troy’s death on the first Sunday of 2021.

How Mobile County Investigates Violent Deaths

The weekend’s cases illustrate the machinery that comes to life in Mobile County whenever a death looks suspicious. Patrol officers and sheriff’s deputies secure scenes and start the canvass, detectives take over the investigative work, and the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office ultimately decides whether evidence supports criminal charges. The district attorney’s office works closely with both the Mobile Police Department and the sheriff’s office, and major cases frequently involve coordination among all three as well as the county’s forensic resources.

Crime Stoppers of South Alabama plays a recurring role in cases like these. The program allows people to submit tips about crimes while remaining anonymous, offers cash rewards for information that leads to arrests, and operates a phone line and online submission system that run around the clock. Tipsters never have to testify or reveal their names, which lowers the barrier for witnesses who might otherwise stay silent — a real consideration in neighborhoods where people know who was involved but fear the consequences of saying so. In the weekend’s cases, the public appeals pointed residents toward exactly this channel: contact Mobile police or Crime Stoppers with any information.

The first weekend of a new year often sets a grim statistical marker for counties like Mobile, and 2021 began with local agencies confronting three deaths at once. Nationally, the year that followed would prove to be one of the deadliest for homicides in many American cities, but in early January none of that was knowable — only that two men had been shot on Height Street, that a 27-year-old had been found dead by his father, and that investigators had their first cases of the year. The lack of announced arrests in the Height Street shooting and the withheld details in Barnhill’s death meant that much of the work was still ahead.

What Neighbors and Family Can Do

For the public, the value of even small observations in cases like these is hard to exaggerate. A vehicle seen speeding from a block, an argument heard earlier in the night, a security camera mounted on a porch or business — each has resolved cases that sat cold for months. Detectives working the Height Street double homicide would have canvassed for exactly that kind of detail, and the continuing investigation into Troy Barnhill’s death depends on anyone who saw him in his final hours coming forward. In both cases, the first days after a death are when memories are freshest and willingness to talk is highest.

The Mobile Police Department’s tip lines and Crime Stoppers both accept information at any hour, and authorities emphasized that no detail is too small to pass along. Cases built on anonymous tips are a routine part of the county’s clearance picture, and detectives say the combination of family cooperation and community silence often determines whether a case moves forward. As Mobile County turned the page into 2021, three families were left planning funerals instead of new years, and investigators were left with the work of finding out who was responsible.

Anyone with information on any of the weekend deaths is urged to contact Mobile police or Crime Stoppers.