HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Samuel Smart and his wife created a shrine to his brother, Tristan Smart, on a series of shelves inside their home.
"I miss his laugh, having that kind of like always forever friend,” Samuel told us.
Tristan was the victim of an unsolved killing that happened on January 14, 2020.
Samuel has a message for the killer.
“I mean, I don’t know how you can live with that, I’m sure you have a family too," he said.
KHOU 11 News covered the crime the night Tristan was fatally shot in his pickup outside a West Road apartment complex near Jersey Village.
His family believes he never knew what hit him.
“The best we can determine is that he was sitting in his truck, on his telephone,” grandfather Gary White said.
Tristan became an Eagle Scout at 16 and went through four years of Air Force JROTC.
But his family admits he may have been meeting up for a drug transaction while on the way to a friend’s birthday party.
"Quite frankly, I have the deep feeling that this was a set-up," White told us. "Somebody knew that this needed to be taking place and they were trying to send a message to somebody.”
Desperate to find Tristan's killer, the family hired their own private investigator.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office says Smart's killing remains an active investigation and a Crime Stoppers reward for information leading to an arrest now stands at $10,000.
"Hopefully, they find the guy who did it, bring him to justice so he doesn’t do it to anybody else," Samuel said.
HCSO told us this case remains an active investigation and anyone with information is encouraged to call 713-222-TIPS.
