Memphis teen charged in connection to 2017 Thanksgiving cold-case murder of elderly veteran

An arrest was made in the cold case murder of Robert Wong, who was killed on Thanksgiving in 2017, according to the Memphis Police Department.

A juvenile affidavit was submitted in Juvenile Court charging 19-year-old Dallas Perkins, who was 15-years-old at the time of Wong's death, with first-degree murder, first-degree murder in perpetration of a theft $2,500 to $10,000 and theft of property.

Police said 68-year-old Wong, a veteran who was being treated for cancer, was found dead in a living room, suffering from a gunshot wound in the shoulder on Nov. 23, 2017. He was killed between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. at his home in the 4100 block of Cochese Avenue in Parkway Village, Tennessee.

Police said they found items from his missing 2005 minivan early the next day, hours before they found the damaged minivan.

Wong retired from the Tennessee Air National Guard's 164th Airlift Wing in Memphis with the rank of chief master sergeant, had been married for 45 years. He was also a grandfather, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Perkins is serving a seven-year prison sentence for aggravated robbery, but new evidence and witness interviews led cold-case detectives to connect him to the murder of Robert Wong, according to WREG 3 News.

The Shelby County D.A. said Perkins pleaded guilty in 2019 to holding up a pizza delivery driver on Oct. 28, 2018. Perkins and two other men reportedly took the driver’s white Dodge Charger, $20 and two pizzas. The day after that, investigators said a Cordova woman reported her home was broken into, and the suspects were in a car matching the description, according to LocalMemphis.com.