PORTSMOUTH, Va. — It’s like a dream, that Sheba Edwards feels she can’t wake up from.
“He was always a protector, even as a kid, he felt like he could protect everybody," Edwards said, describing her adventurous son Eleazara Selby.
In February 2023, they had a phone conversation she didn't ever expect would be the last time she talked to him.
"He said he wanted to go to the casino. I was like, 'Okay, I’ll see you when you get back.'"
"I got a phone call he was in a car accident, and then everybody came over trying to find out what hospital he was at, and as we’re leaving out the door two detectives come to the door and say someone killed him, that it wasn’t an accident," she said.
On February 23, 2023, Portsmouth Police reported a fatal car crash on Victory Boulevard within walking distance of Rivers Casino Portsmouth at Greenwood Drive. Hours later, investigators upgraded the case to a homicide investigation after finding gunshot wounds in Selby, 39 years old at the time of his death.
He leaves behind two children, and a mother who never thought she would outlive her son.
His nickname Ace, is commemorated with a tattoo on Edwards' forearm.
"I was talking to the detective yesterday, he said ‘I know you’re angry.’ And I said ‘You don’t know if I’m angry because you don’t feel this pain.’ A pain I wish on no mother," she said.
On the first year mark of her son’s death, detectives have not answered the question: who pulled the trigger and cut her son’s life short?
Two months after investigators first reported the fatal crash-turned-homicide investigation, Portsmouth Police named two persons of interest in the case. Persons of interest are not defined as suspects, but rather people who investigators may want to talk to.
As of Friday's one-year mark, that is the latest progress in the case as the investigation remains ongoing, according to a Portsmouth Police Department spokesperson.
Edwards harbors no feelings of revenge.
Only a desire for investigators to crack the case and bring her family closure.
"Why would you take somebody’s life? What would make you want to do something like that? You hurt so many people," she said.
"I hope I’ll just be able to breathe a little bit knowing they’re not on the street anymore, that they can’t hurt anyone else’s child.”