Homicide investigators say solid leads have been nearly impossible to come by.
Clarke's son, a quiet kid whom nearly everyone referred to as "Q," disappeared after he left his Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood Nov. 25, 2007. Neighbors said he had told them he was going to visit a girl.
The following day, the John Bartram High School sophomore was found dead behind Selectronics, a Grays Ferry electronics store.
The scene was beyond horrifying: Police said the teen had been stabbed nine times in the back and his throat had been slashed. He had been beaten, partially stripped and wrapped in cellophane, and his head and feet were covered in clear plastic bags.
"It was absolutely brutal," said Homicide Sgt. Tim Cooney, whose squad has handled the case from the beginning.
Cooney said investigators had a difficult time developing even rumors about a motive for Q's murder.
He wasn't into drugs or guns and had little to do with the street toughs who populated the neighborhood around Bonaffon Street and Woodland Avenue, where he lived.
But as the years have passed, Marie Clarke said, one possibility has loomed large in her mind. About two weeks before her son was slain, he skipped school for three days.
At first, she thought it was over teasing: Her son had a learning disability, and kids sometimes made fun of him for it.
But it was something else this time. Bartram was rife with gangs, her son told her, and lately members of the Bloods had been showing up outside school, trying to recruit members.
"He said the Bloods had been harassing him to be in their gang," Clarke said.
"Then one day, one of Q's friends had a fight with someone in the gang, and he got in the middle of it. He was afraid to go back to school."
