Michigan City murder case featured in new Hulu docuseries

 

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind.-- Social media impacts nearly every corner of our lives, and in a nation full of true crime stories and armchair detectives, social media can impact cold cases.

Like this one, where Kalvon Hawkins took to Facebook to plead for answers in his daughter's tragic murder. Some suggest that was the turning point in her murder investigation, and the story is now being retold, in documentary format.

"Everything I do has something to do with Keisha," Hawkins said.

Behind every true crime story is a grieving family.

"Everyone that came in contact with her, they just loved her," he said.

Hawkins still grieves the tragic, abrupt shooting death of his daughter Nekeisha, just 17 years old when she was killed at Memorial Park in Michigan City in July 2011.

"Got a phone call, I looked at the phone it said my wife, picked the phone up, and she was screaming 'Keisha dead.' I hung up. I just stood there. Called back, 'Keisha dead,'" Hawkins said. "I walked up the hill, and that's where I saw my baby laying, under the sheet with the blood going down the hill."

For years, Hawkins said he had to fight for answers since most of the other teenagers at the party that night didn't come forward to investigators.

"Their parents. They told them not to," Hawkins said. "Out of fear and stuff, they just told them to stay out of it. But if it was their child, they would want somebody to say something."

Eventually, a fed-up Hawkins rallied outside the Michigan City police station.

"I went back to the police station, and I walk in there and I say, 'last chance. Are you going to help me?' They said, 'what did we tell you,' I said 'got ya'll.' I said I got nothing to lose now, so I went outside and that's when I went live," he said.

The story blew up, and his Facebook live was seen all over Michiana and beyond.

"It went from me by myself to 85,000 people seeing it on Facebook live and stuff," he said. "And I started asking people to call the news because I'm not leaving, I'm not going nowhere."

In 2017, the killer, Charles Gerron, was finally caught, convicted, and imprisoned. Hawkins said his video helped bring the killer to justice.

"Yeah, it made them police do their jobs."

But now, Hawkins is in the limelight.

"They call me and were like 'we want to do a documentary to go on Hulu. I was like 'yeah right.' they were like 'no we serious.'"

He stars in an episode of a Hulu docuseries by ABC News, "Web of Death."

"There were cameras all over, there was stuff everywhere," Hawkins said.

The series tells the stories of cold cases warmed up because of social media.

"Everybody calling me, they were calling, emailing, texting, everybody crying," Hawkins said. "I was like 'I don’t want to watch that yet.'"

Hawkins said sharing his story again on such a large platform helps keep Nekeisha's memory alive.

"My baby a legend," he said.

Now, he works to honor her name, with a book, a clothing line, and a foundation

"Nekeisha Nicole 'Monster' Hodges-Hawkins Foundation," Hawkins said. "Our mission on there is to eradicate gun violence and crime for the youth. Our mission is to get these young babies and save them."

You can see all five stories from "Web of Death," a series by ABC News on Hulu.

Click here to learn about the Nekeisha Nicole "Monster" Hodges-Hawkins Foundation. 

Click here to learn about Kalvon Hawkins' book, "Justice for NeKeisha: A Father's Pain."