JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) is now reporting a rise in Jacksonville’s murder rate for the first time in three years. JSO is also reporting that fewer murder cases have been cleared this year, as opposed to last year.
Records from JSO show that 76 murders were reported in Jacksonville throughout 2025, which is higher than the 63 murders reported in 2024. At the start of the year, Action News Jax told you when city council members filed a resolution recognizing JSO for its sharp decrease in murders in 2024 compared to 2023, and, at the time, Sheriff T.K. Waters had vowed to keep safety his top priority going into 2025.
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Although the number of cleared cases had risen from 2023 to 2024, the number has fallen from 2024 to 2025. JSO reported that 73% of the murders committed in 2024 were cleared, but the agency reported that 55% of the murders committed in 2025 have been cleared.
Ashley Mathis is among the local families still waiting for closure in the murder of their loved one. We first told you in September when her brother, Noah Sullivan, was shot and killed at a home in the Pine Forest neighborhood. Mathis and some Action News Jax viewers claim that his murder was recorded on a Facebook livestream, but there still has not been an arrest despite what they call “video evidence.”
“My faith has kind of been shaken,” Mathis said, “I feel like they don’t care [about this case], I’m just very confused.”
Mathis has now been waiting for 114 days to receive news that there has been an arrest in Sullivan’s murder, but she feels like she has been left in the dark in his investigation. She claims that she has heard nothing from JSO since her brother was killed.
“I requested a copy of the 911 call and the bodycam footage and all that, like, a week after he died, and I still haven’t received it,” said Mathis.
Action News Jax also requested any 911 calls and body-worn camera video in this investigation, and we have asked JSO multiple times whether the Facebook livestream claimed to have recorded the murder is being used as evidence in this investigation. JSO told us to make a public records request, which we have now done, but we are waiting on a response.
We also asked JSO for a response on the drop in the number of murder cases cleared this year as opposed to last year. JSO told us, in part:
“Our detectives are working hard to solve every homicide and bring justice to the victims’ families. However, these cases must go through the legal system and cannot be rushed.”
Mathis tells Action News Jax she is becoming less sure that her brother’s case will be solved, as more time goes on.
“For me, that haunts me. That bothers me,” Mathis said.
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