One man was gunned down as he walked to catch a bus to work on a summer morning.
Another was gunned down in front of his rural Earl Township home after a night out with friends.
The deaths of two other men in the city, one shot and one stabbed to death, also remain unsolved.
The four homicides — Hector O. Fuentes, Troy L. Martin, Sandy Reyes-Mateo and Michael B. Evans — were among the 14 total homicides in Lancaster County during 2009.
In the other 10 cases, police have made arrests or prosecutors have otherwise resolved them.
For most of the decade, there were 12 homicides each year in Lancaster County. The exceptions, according to newspaper records, were 14 deaths in 2000, six in 2005 and 21 homicides in 2006.
The large number of deaths in 2006 is attributed, in part, to two cases involving multiple victims.
That was the year five Amish girls were murdered in the Nickel Mines school house and six members of the Wise family in Leola were slain.
Police are still hoping someone will come forward with information about the unsolved homicides in the new year.
• Fuentes, 38, a Lancaster father of three, was on his way to catch a bus to his job at Dart Container in Leola, when he was shot once at Orange and Plum Streets on Aug. 11.
City police were investigating an apparently unrelated fatal shooting inside an East Orange Street home, less than one block away, when they discovered the body of Fuentes lying on the street.
• Martin, 45, Earl Township, was shot and killed as he got out of a friend's car in front of his home last Jan. 10.
Police said the assailant — driving a red sport utility vehicle — followed the pair to Martin's home on Clearview Road, firing at least five shots, hitting him twice.
• Reyes-Mateo, 20, of Lancaster, was shot on the afternoon of Nov. 21 at Pershing and Dauphin streets.
A friend drove Reyes-Mateo to the hospital, police said, where he was rushed into surgery and later died.
• Evans, 41, West Lemon Street, died on Dec. 18 after being stabbed at his home, police said.
When police arrived, they found Evans inside the residence suffering from multiple stab wounds and called an ambulance. He died later at the hospital.
Of the 10 remaining cases, four men died from stab wounds and four others died of gunshot wounds.
One man died from a punch and another died from heart failure after his wife attacked him with a baseball bat and barbecue fork, police said.
Those who died from gunshot wounds were:
• Mary Johnson, 29, of Lancaster, who was shot several times in the back on Jan. 23 as she walked on Chester Street.
Police said she spoke the name of her alleged killer, Yaquan "Squeeze" Williams, 28, before she died. Williams was arrested and awaits trial.
• Anthony C. Swaydis, 20, who was shot inside his apartment in the 300 block of East Orange Street in the early morning hours of Aug. 11.
Police charged Jose Montanez and Charlie Jose Rivera-Rodriguez with the homicide, allegedly motivated by a name-calling incident.
• Andrew Hoover, 5, who died from a gunshot wound inflicted by his 6-year-old cousin while the two boys played inside their family's Earl Township barn in September.
The shooter was not charged, but his older brother, 18-year-old Randall Hoover, was charged with recklessly endangering another person for not putting the gun in a safe place out of the boys' reach.
• Thomas Ray Brown III, 35, who died in May after he was shot four times in the parking lot of a Farnum Street apartment building.
Prosecutors learned Brown was shot while trying to rob another man during a scuffle following a drug deal.
District Attorney Craig Stedman concluded that the shooter fired at Brown in self-defense, justifying the homicide.
Those who died of stab wounds included:
• Kenyon Wright-Carter, 18, Lancaster, who was mortally wounded on Green Street last Jan. 24 and died three days later.
Police said the accused killer, Tyler Johns, 16, allegedly stabbed Wright-Carter multiple times in retaliation for two earlier assaults. The defense is arguing it was self-defense.
• Osvaldo Torres, 44, of North Cherry Street, who died in August after he was stabbed by his brother during a fight, police said.
The brother, Enrique Torres-Torres, 38, told police it wasn't unusual for he and his brother to argue, but that night, Aug. 23, he fought back. Torres-Torres, who was charged with criminal homicide, told police he didn't believe his brother was injured that seriously.
• Chrishon Johnson-Gray, 20, who was fatally stabbed on Aug. 24 in the 600 block of Marietta Avenue.
Last month, police caught Sequoyah Native Hawkins, 25, in Upper Darby and charged him with the homicide.
Police said there had been an altercation between the two men, leading to the stabbing.
• Lemar Anthony Lewis, 25, who was stabbed multiple times on Dec. 13 in an apartment in the 400 block of St. Joseph Street. Lewis was taken to the hospital where he later died.
That same evening, police said, David Vasquez Jordan, 28, of Waterford Court, walked into the city police station and admitted to the stabbing.
The other two deaths were:
• Robert Potter, 48, of East Orange Street, who died of heart failure on May 9.
Police said Potter's wife, Tonya, stabbed her husband with a barbecue fork and hit him with a baseball bat.
Even though the injuries were not fatal, police said, the stress of the attack caused Potter's heart to fail. Tonya Potter was charged with homicide.
• Charles Martin, 47, of Bainbridge, a second homicide that was also ruled justifiable by the district attorney and police.
Investigators said Martin was drinking at the Bainbridge Inn on North Front Street on Nov. 11, and became upset that Jimmy Flowers, 25, also of Bainbridge, was playing pool.
Flowers offered to let Martin use the table, Stedman said, but Martin hit Flowers "in what can only be described as unprovoked assault."
Flowers responded with a single punch and Martin fell to the floor, apparently hitting the back of his head.
Flowers and others performed CPR, but Martin died a short time later.
In this case, the evidence and tavern's security video recording the events of the evening led investigators to conclude that Flowers' actions were justified and no charges will be filed.
"In Pennsylvania and in general, you have a right to defend yourself with reasonable force to match the force applied to you," Stedman explained.
"It is extremely unfortunate that the incident resulted in the loss of life and it certainly illustrates the dangers associated with any physical confrontation," Stedman said.