Substantial reward awaits tipster in unsolved murder

INDIANAPOLIS — There’s a mural of a smiling young man on the wall of a building at 10th and Parker on Indy’s near eastside

”I want his face to be remembered forever,” said Kendia Lovelady who finished the mural of her brother Charles Lovelady, Jr., one year to the day after he died on October 12, 2024. ”My brother was loved by everyone in this neighborhood. This was his neighborhood. Everyone knows him as Chuck Junior from our coney island but he also had several properties that he owned in this area where he housed a lot of people, so he had a lot of love over here.”

Lovelady and his girlfriend were leaving Sunset Strip, a bar at 16th Street and Lafayette Road, after picking up food shortly past 3 a.m. when surveillance video caught a glimpse of a black Chevy truck making a U-turn and pulling up alongside the young businessman’s black Cadillac SUV in the 900 block of Indiana Avenue.

There was gunfire, some bullets shattering the window of a nearby Taco Bell, and Lovelady was shot to death, his girlfriend unharmed.

“They were headed back to his penthouse and he was sitting at a light and somebody just started shooting at him and he tried to get away,” said Kendra Lovelady who believes her son may have been mistaken for someone else. ”Same type of car, Cadillac, spotted that Cadillac and they thought it was that Cadillac and started firing at my son unfortunately.”

In her son’s memory, Kendra and the family have established the Charles Lovelady, Jr., Foundation which has fed people of his eastside neighborhood during the holidays.

Charles Senior expects to open Chuck’s Coney Island that was intended to be a father-son joint venture by the end of the year.

The restaurant will be in the building that has Charles Junior’s mural on the side.

Lovelady said he has a substantial reward for anyone supplying the tip that solves his son’s murder.

Tips can also be called in to Crimestoppers at 317-262-TIPS.