WILMAR, Ark. — On the third anniversary of a murder in Drew County, the sheriff’s office is requesting Arkansas State Police take over the investigation.

Marquis Martin disappeared in February 2020. His body was found weeks later near an overpass in Drew County, and his family has been relentless in their pursuit of justice ever since.

Martin’s family has requested the case be handed over to a larger agency for years.

“I asked him on February 14, 2020. I was here in that office, and I asked him can you please get me some help,” Marquis Martin’s mother Lakisha Arrington said.

But the request only happened after former sheriff Mark Gober was replaced by new Sheriff Tim Nichols.

Loved ones have always left coins where Marquis Martin is laid to rest in Wilmar.

“That’s just how he was. Flip a dollar, make a dollar,” cousin Zay Ridgell explained.

Ridgell says Martin is more like a brother since they were raised together. He now watches over a museum and mural that memorializes Marquis.

Instead of leaving coins, they may finally have their own change.

Lakisha Arrington has been following every lead, rumor, and alleged clue since her 26-year-old son went missing and was later found dead in February 2020.

“All I know is she say he say and trying to piece something together,” Arrington said.

The case has taken many twists and turns, including a picture with a monkey and a racial slur, that circulated on social media a couple of years ago. She believes she can see her son’s face in the photo, in the area that we blurred.

The former Drew County Sheriff said in 2021 one of his sons posted the photo on Snapchat. A photo forensic expert could not definitively say if the image is authentic or if it was doctored. The former sheriff says it was altered and his son apologized for posting it but stated his son was not in Arkansas at the time of Martin’s disappearance.

“Who did it? Why was it done? Where? I need to know that. I don’t know anything,” Arrington asked of the entire homicide investigation.

Her questions may have new hope because of Drew County’s new sheriff Tim Nichols. He’s asked Arkansas State Police to take over the case.