Police say cameras showed a nearby resident leaving Tresa Long’s apartment days before officers found her dead during a welfare check.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A surveillance camera outside a Memphis apartment became a key investigative clock in the death of Tresa Long, recording a man police later identified as Collan Lee Carter leaving her unit early March 29, more than a week before officers discovered her body.
The video allowed detectives to reconstruct what they say was Long’s final period of known activity and connect a nearby apartment to the man captured on camera. Police later charged Carter with first-degree murder. According to an affidavit account, leasing records tied the apartment toward which the recorded man walked to Carter, and investigators used police databases to identify him from the footage. Carter allegedly acknowledged being the man shown in the distinctive clothing but denied entering Long’s apartment. Authorities say the recording showed him leaving it. The investigation later gained another element when Carter allegedly discussed Long being stabbed before police had publicly disclosed that information.
The timeline described by investigators begins around 3:02 a.m. March 29. A surveillance camera covering Long’s apartment recorded a man wearing a black, red and white hoodie with the number 23 on its front leaving her unit, according to the police affidavit described in public reporting. The man then walked through the complex toward another apartment. Investigators did not simply rely on the clothing or the direction he traveled. They checked leasing records for the destination unit and found that it belonged to Carter. Detectives later compared the video with information available through police systems and concluded Carter was the person in the recording.
What happened on the cameras afterward was less dramatic but important to the police timeline. Investigators kept reviewing footage from the following days. People approached Long’s apartment and knocked, but no one answered. Packages accumulated outside the door and remained untouched. Police said there were no observable signs of life from the unit after the man identified as Carter was recorded leaving. Those details gave detectives a period in which Long apparently stopped responding to visitors. The video did not capture what occurred inside the apartment, according to the material publicly described, and authorities have not said they possess a recording of the killing itself.
By April 6, concern about Long had prompted a welfare check. Memphis police arrived at The Villages Apartments on Jackson Avenue shortly after 1:30 a.m. First responders noticed an odor coming from the locked apartment, according to the affidavit account. Firefighters forced entry so officers could get inside. Long was found dead in a bedroom. Police said her body was badly decomposed and that investigators did not observe evidence that someone had forced entry into the apartment before first responders arrived. The discovery transformed a welfare check into a death investigation and then, after a forensic examination, a homicide case.
The West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center determined that Long had suffered seven to 10 stab wounds to the neck and ruled the death a homicide, according to the reporting reviewed for this article. The finding gave investigators a cause and manner of death, but police did not immediately make those details public. That decision later became significant when detectives questioned Carter. Until then, the surveillance timeline had told investigators who they believed was leaving the apartment and when, while the medical findings established what had happened to Long. Neither piece, standing alone, publicly explained why she was killed or what occurred before the recorded departure.
Detectives eventually obtained a warrant connected to Carter’s residence and brought him in for questioning. According to investigators, Carter acknowledged that he was the person captured on the complex’s surveillance system wearing the numbered hoodie. He nevertheless denied that he had entered Long’s apartment. Police say detectives confronted him with video they interpreted as showing him coming out of the unit. The publicly reported affidavit does not say Carter admitted harming Long. His alleged denial is therefore central to the dispute over how investigators interpreted the surveillance evidence and how Carter described his own movements.
The interview then produced a different kind of evidence. Carter allegedly said he had heard that Long was stabbed multiple times. Detectives considered that noteworthy because they said the stabbing information had not been released publicly at the time. The public reporting does not establish where Carter said he heard it, whether he identified a source for the information or whether investigators independently determined that nobody else had disclosed it to him. His statement is therefore not a confession. Prosecutors may argue that it has evidentiary significance, while a defense could challenge what the remark proves, how it was elicited or whether there were other ways Carter could have learned the information.
The cameras also helped police bridge the physical distance between the two apartments. Long and Carter lived in the same apartment complex, and reports based on the affidavit say Carter’s unit was one building away. The leasing records supplied a concrete address connection after investigators followed the recorded man’s route. That mattered because surveillance images can show movement without necessarily establishing identity. Police say they combined the footage with rental information and database comparisons rather than treating the recording as a stand-alone identification. Authorities have not publicly released all of the footage described in the affidavit, so the broader public has not independently evaluated the full video sequence cited by detectives.
Months passed between the April 6 discovery and the July arrest. Memphis television station WMC reported that a warrant was issued for Carter and that he was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder. Other reporting said he was held without bond after his arrest. Authorities have not offered a detailed public explanation for the length of the investigation. It is not unusual for homicide detectives to assemble records, video and forensic information before seeking a charge, but police have not specified which investigative step accounted for the passage of time in this case. The known public record therefore establishes the gap without assigning a reason to it.
Neighbors later told WREG that the homicide investigation had largely remained out of sight. Some remembered police activity and officers canvassing the apartment complex after Long was found but said they did not know another resident would later be accused. Residents also pointed to the role surveillance cameras played in the case. Their reaction adds a second timeline to the story: while detectives were reviewing footage and developing evidence, people living close to the scene continued their daily routines without knowing the full nature of the investigation or that police would ultimately focus on a nearby tenant.
Several major questions remain unanswered in the public record. Police have not announced a motive. Publicly reviewed reports do not describe a documented history of conflict between Long and Carter, establish why the man identified by investigators was allegedly inside her apartment or explain how the person entered. The lack of apparent forced entry does not answer those questions by itself. Authorities also have not publicly identified a witness who saw the killing or released a complete forensic inventory from the scene. Those issues could become important as prosecutors present their theory of the case and Carter has an opportunity to challenge it.
First-degree murder is the charge police brought against Carter, not a finding of guilt. The state must prove its allegations through the court process, where surveillance footage can be examined in context and the reliability and meaning of Carter’s alleged statements can be contested. The distinction is particularly important in a case built publicly around a sequence of investigative links: a recorded departure, apartment records, a forensic ruling and an interview. Each link may be evaluated separately before a judge or jury considers what the evidence establishes as a whole.
For now, Carter faces the first-degree murder charge arising from Long’s death. No later reliable public source reviewed for this article establishes that the case has reached a final disposition. Police have not publicly announced a motive, and the surveillance timeline that helped lead investigators to Carter remains evidence in an unresolved criminal case.
Author note: Last updated Aug. 27, 2026.