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Lyman J. Platt had not lived in St. George long enough to make many friends, much less enemies, his brother said.
But in December 2002, Platt's body was found in his store, Discount Golf, 429 N. Bluff St. No arrests have been made, and last week St. George police put a notice on their Web site renewing public calls for help in what they say is the city's only unsolved murder.
"We're like everybody else," said Platt's brother, Lester Platt. "We're looking for closure."
Lyman Platt was a 38-year-old husband and father of three children. He grew up in southwest Missouri and worked tending golf courses and running pro shops there, his brother said.
Then, a few weeks before his murder, he moved his family to Ivins and started the golf shop in St. George. Lester Platt said his brother researched golfing locations and liked the abundance of courses around St. George, as well as the southwest Utah climate.
Lester Platt, in a telephone interview from his home in Ava, Mo., said he spoke to his brother about three weeks before his death. They talked on the telephone and told each other "I love you."
"I'm glad that's the last thing I got to say to him," Lester Platt said.
On Dec. 23, 2002, Platt's body was found at the store. Someone entered Discount Golf and shot Lyman Platt repeatedly in the head and chest with a handgun. There were no signs of a robbery at the golf shop. Nothing was missing and there were no signs of forced entry or a struggle. Platt had no defensive wounds.
"We've investigated possibly every angle we can think of," said St. George police Sgt. Craig Harding.
Harding said detectives hope somebody in the past five years has heard or remembered something that will solve the case.
Harding pointed to the November 2003 killing of St. George coin shop dealer Jordan Allgood. Police have said that case was solved after a Nevada prison inmate claimed one of the suspects described the killing to him.
Lyman Platt's widow and children have moved to Idaho. Lester Platt said since his brother's death, he has watched his now-79-year-old mother "go downhill."
"Lyman had lots of friends here and every time they see me they ask me what's going on," Lester Platt said.
Anyone with information in the case can call St. George police at 435-627-4305.