Investigators look for new leads in off-duty DC police officer’s 1995 murder

Almost 30 years after an off-duty D.C. police officer was found shot to death in her Silver Spring home, police are looking for new leads in the case. Police charged her boyfriend with murder, but dropped the charge two months later, and the homicide remains unsolved.

On Sept. 16, 1995, Kenneth Wonsom told police he went to the store just after 3 a.m. and returned to the apartment to find the front door open and 24-year-old Deena Campbell dead inside.

“He described it as being approximately 3 inches ajar when he got home,” Montgomery County police Det. Paula Hamill said. “He had said that he locked the bottom and top lock upon leaving at 3:20 a.m.”

When police arrived, they found the keys in the door.

Several witnesses told investigators they heard gunshots around the time Wonsom says he left the apartment, Hamill said.

“We had a specific witness that heard five gunshots, and Deena Campbell was in fact shot five times,” she said.

Campbell’s police-issued service weapon was missing and was never found.

Investigators also discovered a message Wonsom left on Campbell’s answering machine: “Hey, boo, I’m on my way home. I was just calling to see if you wanted something. I should be there — it’s 4:05 — I should be there about 15, 20 minutes. I’m stopping to get some Listerine and a couple of sodas. Love you. Bye bye.”

But in his interview police, Wonsom told investigators those where the items Campbell already asked him to go to the store for, Hamill said.

Investigators also learning Campbell told friends she was scared of Wonsom and wanted to move out of the apartment.

“One of her beat partners that she worked with in D.C.  that, like, worked in an adjoining beat with her, she had spoken to him as recently as Thursday before she was killed — so, two nights before — and told him if I don’t come show up for work on Saturday, then you’ll know he killed me,” Hamill said.

The state’s attorney’s office will not say why the murder charge was dropped.

Juanita Eggleston, who was a police cadet with Campbell and served on the D.C. police force with her, said she can’t believe her friend has been gone almost 30 years.

“That’s a long time, a very long time,” she said. “I believe in this world there’s karma in the world. What you put out in the world you get back.”

News4 called and left messages for Wonsom but hasn’t heard back.

Hamill said she is still looking for help in the case.

“Or even moving forward from 29 years to now, anybody that has heard any information about Deena Campbell or what may have happened to her,” she said.

“I have peace but I will have better peace when we get to a resolution,” Eggleston said.