The Unsolved Murder of Helen Wingard Hill

On January 4, 2007, in New Orleans, six lives were taken. One of those lives was that of Helen Wingard Hill, an artist, writer, filmmaker, and activist. Helen was a native of Columbia, South Carolina, where she had graduated high school in 1988. She earned an A.B. at Harvard University in 1992, majoring in English and minoring in Visual and Environmental Studies.

Shortly after graduation, she headed out with classmate and close friend, Paul Gailiunas, to spend a summer in New Orleans amid the arts and music culture there. They were each smitten with the city and, as time passed, it seemed they were beginning to feel the same way about one another. Paul has said that is where they fell in love. They married two years later back in Helen's hometown of Columbia. Paul was Canadian, so their marriage led to Helen having dual citizenship.

Helen went on to complete her Masters of Fine Arts at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 1995 before moving to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Paul was completing medical school. She pursued a filmmaking career and taught animation there until December 2000, when the couple decided to relocate to New Orleans, settling in an area known as the Mid-City district. On October 15, 2004, Helen gave birth to their son, Francis Pop, and continued to teach animation.

Things seemed magical for the pair until August 2005. The couple and their son lost most of their possessions when their home was flooded during Hurricane Katrina. They temporarily relocated to Helen's hometown of Columbia to regroup, but a year later returned to New Orleans. There, Helen resumed her filmmaking, teaching and became more involved in grassroots activism dedicated to rebuilding the city around them.

On the morning Helen was killed, a man attempted to rob a bed and breakfast a few houses down the street from the couple's home. Police were already on the scene questioning the owners of the B&B when they heard gunshots coming from nearby.

By the time officers arrived at Paul and Helen's house, she had been fatally shot. Paul had also been shot three times but survived. Their toddler son was unharmed. The killer managed to escape the scene without being apprehended, slipping out the door without being seen by anyone who could identify him.

Despite extensive national media coverage across North American and a $15,000 Crimestoppers reward being offered, no arrest has been made in this case. The crime committed against this family has led to civic outrage with one march on City Hall having taken place on January 11, 2007. Organizers Helen Gillet, Ken Foster, and Baty Landis formed the nonprofit organization “Silence is Violence” to campaign for peace in New Orleans.

In 2007, Harvard Film Archive established the Helen Hill Collection, archiving films, drawings, photographs, artworks, writings, music, and ephemera. It includes ten animated and experimental works on 16mm film prints available for loan or exhibition.

In March 2008, New York University organized an evening of new preserved work by and about Hill. It was screened as “Anywhere: A Tribute to Artist and Activist Helen Hill.” During the event, NYU’s Department of Cinema Studies, the University of South Carolina’s Film Studies Program, and the Nickelodeon Theatre presented the first-ever Helen Hill Awards to filmmakers Naomi Uman and Jimmy Kinder for their work.

Despite the deep respect Helen’s community and people around the world have for her and the lasting legacy of the work she left behind, her murder and her husband’s shooting remain unsolved almost fifteen years later. There is someone who is likely still walking the streets who casually took the life of a young mother and brilliant human being. Helen and her family still await justice.