Brooklyn, New York — June 2006
Sixteen-year-old Chanel Petro-Nixon left her family’s Brooklyn home on a Sunday afternoon with a simple plan: she was going to meet a friend at a nearby Applebee’s.
She never came home.
Four days later, her body was discovered inside a trash bag on Kingston Avenue. Chanel had been strangled.
For years, the question surrounding her death remained unanswered. Then, a decade later, investigators finally announced an arrest.
But by that point, the man accused of killing Chanel was thousands of miles away.
WHO WAS CHANEL PETRO-NIXON?
Chanel was born on August 4, 1989, and lived in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood with her parents, Anthony Garvin and Lucita Nixon, and her brothers, Marcus and Giovanni.
Her family described her as deeply religious. She attended the Mt. of Olives Seventh-day Adventist Church on Bushwick Avenue and regularly took part in church services and prayer.
At school, Chanel was an 11th grader at Boys and Girls High School.
She was known for being an excellent student and often spent her afternoons in the library. Her ambitions extended beyond school as well. According to a CNN report cited in the source material, Chanel hoped to become a nurse so she could help other people.
To those who knew her, she was still just a teenager with a future ahead of her.
That future was taken away in June 2006.
THE LAST TIME CHANEL WAS SEEN
On Sunday, June 18, Chanel left her family home.
She told her family that she was heading to an Applebee’s restaurant near New York Avenue and Fulton Street to meet a friend.
It was an ordinary plan.
But Chanel never returned.
Her disappearance immediately left her family searching for answers. Four days passed before the search took a devastating turn.
On June 22, her body was found inside a trash bag in front of 212 Kingston Avenue.
The medical findings determined that Chanel had been strangled.
She was only sixteen years old.
A FAMILY LEFT WITH QUESTIONS
Chanel’s murder devastated her family and shook the surrounding community.
Her father, Anthony Garvin, spoke about how difficult it had become to know whom to trust after his daughter’s death.
Her mother, Lucita, responded differently. Rather than allowing anger to consume her, she said she would not let hatred or anger poison her.
Friends remembered Chanel as a good student and someone who stayed out of trouble. One teenage friend recalled reading The Da Vinci Code with her and described her affectionately as the “little nerd” because of her strong grades.
Chanel’s parents also made public appeals for information, asking anyone who knew something about their daughter’s death to come forward.
THE SEARCH FOR HER KILLER
Police quickly began asking the public for help.
An initial reward of $12,000 was offered for information that could assist investigators. Eventually, the reward grew to $38,000, with contributions coming from several sources, including the New York City Police Department, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the New York Daily News, and Reverend Al Sharpton.
Despite the growing reward, no one came forward to claim it.
Investigators interviewed Chanel’s friends and received hundreds of tips.
Even the shoes Chanel had been wearing became part of the public appeal. Her distinctive white and pink retro Jordan sneakers were highlighted in the New York Daily News in the hope that someone might remember seeing them around the time she disappeared.
Detective squad commander David Stein reportedly described the case as the kind of investigation a detective might encounter only once in a career.
But years passed.
And there was still no arrest.
THE FRIEND SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO MEET
For investigators, one detail would eventually become especially important.
The friend Chanel had planned to meet at Applebee’s was not a stranger.
His name was Veron Primus.
Primus had been a school friend of Chanel’s, and according to the source material, investigators eventually determined that he was the person she was supposed to meet that day.
He had reportedly been considered a suspect from the beginning.
But suspicion alone was not enough to bring charges.
For nearly ten years, the case remained without an arrest.
A BREAKTHROUGH TEN YEARS LATER
In June 2016, Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson announced that Veron Primus had been formally charged with Chanel Petro-Nixon’s murder.
The development came after Primus had left the United States.
Years after Chanel’s death, Primus had served prison time for violating a restraining order and was subsequently deported to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Then, in 2016, authorities in St. Vincent were investigating unrelated crimes involving Primus.
During that investigation, they uncovered new evidence that investigators said connected him to Chanel’s murder.
New York investigators traveled to the island, and an indictment followed.
After ten years, the case had finally reached the courtroom stage.
THE CASE WASN’T OVER
The arrest did not immediately bring Chanel’s family the final resolution they had waited years for.
As of 2024, Primus remained imprisoned in St. Vincent after being convicted there of the unrelated murder of 33-year-old estate agent Sharleen Greaves. He received a 34-year prison sentence for that case.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said he wanted Primus returned to the United States so that he could face trial for the murder of Chanel Petro-Nixon.
That distinction is important: the conviction described in the source was for the St. Vincent murder, while the Brooklyn case concerned the separate charge involving Chanel.
YEARS OF KEEPING HER MEMORY ALIVE
Chanel’s death did not disappear from public memory.
Her case was discussed in the media, including a CNN segment in 2007 focusing on unsolved murders.
Community members also continued efforts to keep attention on the case. In 2010, a rally, march, and prayer vigil were held in Chanel’s honor.
A memorial website was also created both to remember her and to encourage anyone with information about her murder to come forward.
For her family, keeping Chanel’s story alive was about more than finding a name for the person responsible.
It was about making sure the world did not forget who she was.
CHANEL’S STORY
Chanel Petro-Nixon was sixteen years old when she walked out of her Brooklyn home to meet a friend.
She was a student.
A daughter.
A sister.
A teenager with plans for her future.
Four days later, her family was facing the unimaginable reality that she would never walk through their door again.
Her murder remained unresolved for years, despite public appeals, hundreds of tips, a growing reward, and repeated efforts to keep the case in the public eye.
Then, a decade later, investigators finally connected her case to someone who had reportedly been known to her.
The legal story that followed extended beyond New York, leaving the question of Chanel’s murder tied to proceedings in two countries.
But at the center of it all remains the same sixteen-year-old girl who left home on June 18, 2006, expecting to meet a friend—and never returned.
Chanel Petro-Nixon deserved a future. Her family spent years making sure her story was not forgotten.
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