Virginia medical examiner seeks help identifying skeletal remains from Central Virginia

Virginia Department of Health’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is seeking the public’s help identifying eight people whose remains were found in separate locations throughout Central Virginia between 1988 and 2020. The office this week released facial approximations of the eight men, including one whose body was found in Highland Springs in 2014.

“Many of these cases have remained unidentified for decades,” said Lara Newell, the long-term unidentified coordinator for OCME. “The goal is to get the information and the likenesses out into the public in the hopes that they will be recognized, and eventually identified.”

The facial approximations were created from CT scans of the skulls and examinations of the remains by the FBI Forensic Anthropology and Forensic Imaging Units at no cost to OCME or law enforcement.

Photographs of the facial approximations have been entered into the case files of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Systems. NamUs is a web-based computer search engine funded by the National Institute of Justice to facilitate matching missing and unidentified persons.

Descriptions of the eight men are as follows:

• a Hispanic male, approximately 25-35 years old, whose remains were found in a wooded area in Highland Springs Jan. 28, 2014. The cause of death is homicidal violence of undetermined etiology, and the manner is homicide. The man was approximately 4 foot 8 to 5 foot 3 in height and had numerous dental restorations. (NamUs ID: 12242)

• a white male, approximately 39-64 years old, whose remains were found in an overgrown area near a pathway in the city of Richmond July 2, 2020. The cause and manner of death are undetermined. The man was approximately 5 foot 2 to 5 foot 7 in height and had healed fractures to his nose, ribs and shoulder (clavicle). The fractures to his nose would have caused deviation to the left. (NamUs ID: 72826)

• a Black male, approximately 33-49 years old, whose remains were found in the rear yard of a residential area within the floodplain of the James River in the city of Richmond March 7, 2016. His cause and manner of death are undetermined. The man was approximately 5 foot 9 to 6 foot 3 in height and had a healed fracture of the right knee and may have walked with a limp/locked knee. He may have been partially deaf in the left ear due to trauma. (NamUs ID: 14889)

• a Black male, approximately 50-70 years old, whose remains were found in an industrial area by construction crews in the city of Richmond Sept. 26, 2000. His cause and manner of death are undetermined. The man was approximately 5 foot 2 to 5 foot 9 in height and had healed rib and lower left leg fractures. (NamUs ID: 6148)

• a Black male, approximately 34-68 years old, whose remains were found in a residential area in the city of Richmond Oct. 23, 1995. His cause and manner of death are undetermined. The man was approximately 5 foot 9 in height and had a fractured jaw. (NamUs ID: 903)

• a white male, approximately 45-65 years old, whose remains were found in a wooded area in Brunswick County by a hunter Jan. 1, 1990. His cause and manner of death are undetermined. The man had healed facial and abdominal trauma, possibly from a car accident or another traumatic event, 15 years prior to his death. (NamUs ID: 6513)

• two white Hispanic males, whose remains were found in a wooded area in Ruther Glen in Caroline County by hunters Nov. 10, 1988. The older male was approximately 35-45 years old and between 5 foot 5 and 5 foot 9 in height.  The younger male was approximately 17-25 years old and approximately 5 foot 6 in height.  DNA indicated a possible parent-child relationship. The cause of death was blunt force injury to the head, and the manner is listed as homicide. (NamUs IDs: 6507 (older) and 6301 (younger))

The facial approximations are online at www.vdh.virginia.gov/medical-examiner/looking-for-a-missing-person/.

Anyone with any information about the possible identity of any of these cases is asked to call the Central District – OCME at (804) 786-3174 or email at OCME_CENT@vdh.virginia.gov.

Currently, Virginia has 224 unidentified remains statewide, with some remains dating back to 1948.