SPRINGVILLE, Utah — As families gather for the holidays, a Springville family is preparing for their third season with an empty seat at the table.
Two years ago last week, Michael Mayer was shot and killed in what is believed to be connected to a robbery, but the case remains unsolved. Mayer's family doesn't want her son to be forgotten, especially during the holiday season.
"It's been very frustrating not having any answers ... for closure and for the grief process," said Mayer's cousin, Annie Reinhold. "There was no reason for him to die, and so it's frustrating to not know who, not know why."
Twenty-three-year-old Mayer was coming home on November 18, 2023, from a second job driving for DoorDash when he was killed.
"Just wrong place at wrong time. We just know that he got out of his car, just a few steps away, and someone shows up," Mayer's mother, Holly Thaxton, told FOX 13 News last year.
'No closure': Police offer $5,000 reward for information on 2023 murder:
The Springville Police Department offered a $5,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest, but the family said they're not aware that anything came of the offer, leaving them with unanswered questions and hoping the case doesn’t remain cold.
"Just for answers for justice for Mikey, to have some kind of closure, you know," said Reinhold. "To figure out who did this and to put them behind bars, or to figure out why."
Mayer was shot outside the apartment he had just moved into with his brother. His absence has left a huge hole in the tight-knit family where Mayer was one of 7 siblings.
"They deserve to get to know their brother, and it’s sad that they don’t get to," Reinhold added, remembering her cousin's big smile. "If he was smiling, you were smiling. And his laugh was hilarious because like everything was like jiggle ... so then it just, like, make you laugh even more."
Multiple people were originally detained for questioning after the shooting, with one woman being charged and later pleading guilty to obstruction of justice.
