The lavender irises are blooming outside of Jessie King's Echo Drive house. She and her companion planted them five years ago. She cut a few this week and put them on the kitchen table. She wishes he were here to enjoy them.

William Keen was killed March 10, 2000. The Sureway taxi driver was found outside of his cab in an alley off South Fourth Street between Ashtabula and Clinton streets. He had been stabbed, and his throat had been cut. Within months, the police investigation narrowed to two suspects, and then one, but authorities were never able to make an arrest.

Ironton Police detective, Capt. Chris Bowman said the case continues to be a priority.

"We still get leads from time to time and do follow up on them. This case is important. I feel the victim's family needs closure and that justice needs to be done in the case."

Three years later, Keen's family can remember the happier times when they were together, and wish they knew who killed this man, and why.

"He was a good man," King said. "He would give to anybody. If someone got into his cab and they didn't have enough money for their fare, he'd loan them the money. I often wondered why he didn't come home with more money than he did. Then when he died, I couldn't believe the people who showed up at the funeral home and said he had helped them."

King's memories of Keen are of a jovial, outgoing sort of man who liked people."He was in love with every woman who ever got into his cab, from 6 months old up to 90," King said. "He liked people; he liked driving a cab."

King's daughter, Shirley Carter, remembered as a protective father figure who gave her advice about life and worried over the choices she made.

"He used to tell me he was afraid I'd marry some guy that wouldn't work and wanted me to take care of him, and I'd end up having a houseful of kids. Boy was he ever so right," Carter said.

King and Keen, together for 13 years, loved flea markets and dining out.

King said she can still remember that early morning three years ago that her life changed forever.

"I got a phone call from the cab company and they asked if Bill was here, because they couldn't find him, and I told him he wasn't here," King said.

A few hours later, phone calls of exasperation were replaced by a knock at the door. "I saw these cars come up the road: there was a taxi, and Mr. (Bob) Griffith's car and a squad car. And I wondered what was going on. And Mr. Griffith said, 'this is the hardest thing I ever have to do.'" King paused. "It was like I had been hit. I couldn't even cry."

Life without her companion has not been easy. "The loneliness is the worst part," King said. "I go to bed and night and get to thinking about things. Not a night goes by that I don't cry."

After Keen's death, King went back to work, giving her more than a paycheck.

"When I'm working I don't sit and think about things so much," King said.

"I would love to see this murder solved. I want to know who did this. Sometimes at work I'll look up and see a crowd of people standing there and I wonder if the person who killed Bill is standing there," King said. "I want to see the murder of the woman (Pamela Goldcamp) solved. I sometimes wonder if there's a connection between the two murders.

I would just give anything to find out who did this. Someone is bound to know something."