What Happened to Tupac’s Gold Chain? Murder Trial Revives a 30-Year Mystery

Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur was fatally shot on the Las Vegas Strip, the opening day of the murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis has resurfaced a little-discussed mystery from the night of the legendary rapper’s death: What happened to the gold chain Tupac was wearing before he was shot?

During testimony Monday, a witness recounting the chaotic moments surrounding the September 7, 1996 shooting said that after Tupac arrived at the hospital, the gold chain he had been wearing was missing.

The revelation immediately raises questions about a piece of jewelry that can be seen in one of the most famous photographs ever taken of Shakur.

Just minutes before the shooting, Tupac was photographed sitting in the passenger seat of a black BMW driven by Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight. In the image, Tupac can clearly be seen wearing a large gold chain and medallion.

Hours earlier, Tupac and members of the Death Row entourage had attended the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight championship fight at the MGM Grand. Surveillance footage later captured Tupac, Knight and others attacking Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson inside the casino.

Prosecutors now allege that the confrontation triggered the retaliation that ultimately led to Tupac's shooting.

Shortly after 11 p.m., while Knight and Tupac were stopped near Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, a white Cadillac pulled alongside their BMW and gunfire erupted. Tupac was struck multiple times and rushed to University Medical Center, where he remained hospitalized for six days before dying on September 13, 1996.

Contemporary reporting confirms that Tupac was incoherent when paramedics removed him from the BMW and transported him to the hospital. But public accounts from the original investigation have provided little clarity about what happened to the jewelry he was photographed wearing shortly before the shooting.

Now, testimony during Davis' murder trial has put the chain back into focus.

Was it recovered from Tupac or the BMW, removed by emergency personnel during treatment? Was it inventoried among his personal property? Was it ultimately returned to his family or representatives? Or did the chain disappear somewhere between the shooting scene and the hospital?

The detail is particularly intriguing because jewelry already plays an important role in the history surrounding Tupac's murder. The MGM Grand confrontation with Anderson has long been linked to an earlier incident involving the theft of a Death Row Records medallion from a member of the label's circle.

Davis is the only surviving person accused of being inside the Cadillac from which the fatal shots were fired. Prosecutors say he helped orchestrate the attack and supplied the weapon, while his defense argues that Davis exaggerated or fabricated accounts of his involvement over the years.

The trial, which began Monday in Las Vegas and is expected to feature dozens of witnesses, is revisiting details of Tupac's final hours that have been debated for three decades.

And now one of the smallest details may produce another unanswered question: What happened to Tupac Shakur's gold chain?