The killer of a Jersey City man murdered in his Heights neighborhood home in 1990 has yet to be brought to justice, but a childhood friend is fighting to keep his story alive.

“Feb. 2 was the 24th anniversary, and he was 23 when he was taken, and it is like a tipping point — gone more years than he was here,” Kelly Vetter said of aspiring artist James Stanaway, who was found dead in his Ogden Avenue apartment by a friend.

He had been beaten to death, police said at the time. Homicide investigators say the case is not forgotten.

“He was the best childhood friend I ever had,” Vetter said. “I believe there is still someone alive who knows something and will do the right thing.

“My father, who was himself a Jersey City police officer, came to tell me (Stanaway) was found dead and he couldn’t, for years, tell me what he had heard — the violence, the horror of the extent of Jimmy’s injuries.”

Vetter and Stanaway’s families are originally from Duncan Avenue in Jersey City, but they met in fourth grade in Woodbridge. They were in the same homeroom every year through high school and were fast friends.

Stanaway moved back to Jersey City about a year before his death and was working in a clothing store in the Newport Centre Mall when the tragedy occurred.

“The stuff from his case has to be in a box somewhere and I hope they can see if there is a print or any blood because technology has changed so much,” said Vetter. “Every time I go to (Stanaway’s) grave I feel like, ‘I’m sorry buddy. I just can’t tell you it’s done.’”

Vetter said she has sent letters to a score of newspapers over the years hoping to keep the case alive, but has never received a response.

Vetter, an artist, finds it ironic that Stanaway’s grave in a Woodbridge cemetery is near a spot where “he and I would stand and look at the New York skyline, dreaming of making it in the art world. He loved New York, was always on the cutting edge of music, fashion, culture.”

She and Stanaway “always looked out for each other. He was just fearless in a way,” she said.

Now Stanaway shares a grave with his mother and Vetter “can’t believe his mother went to that grave without even knowing who killed her son.”

Prosecutors say the investigation into Stanaway’s murder is ongoing.

“This is an active cold case investigation and I will not talk about it in the press,” said Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Michael D’Andrea. “No unsolved murder case is ever closed without an arrest and conviction.”

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office’s Homicide Squad at (201) 915-1345.