Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner seeks help to identify skeletal remains

The Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is requesting assistance in identifying human remains discovered in various locations throughout Central Virginia. All remains belong to males, and the discovery dates range from 1988 to 2020. In an effort to aid identification, the OCME has released facial approximations for each of the individuals. The approximations were created using CT scans of the skulls and forensic examinations of the remains.

Lara Newell, the long-term unidentified coordinator for OCME, expressed her hope that sharing the information with the public will lead to the recognition and eventual identification of these individuals, many of whom have remained unidentified for decades. Each approximation has been recorded in the corresponding case files maintained by the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Systems, or NamUs.

The first set of remains on the list was found in the city of Richmond in an overgrown area near a pathway on July 2, 2020. They belong to a white man between the ages of 39 and 64 who was between 5-foot-2 and 5-foot-7. He had healed fractures to his clavicle and ribs as well as his nose, which would have caused his nose to be bent to the left. The cause of death for this individual has yet to be determined.

The second set of remains belongs to a Black man between the ages of 33 and 49, discovered in the rear yard of a residential area within the floodplain of the James River in Richmond on March 7, 2016. This man was between 5-foot-9 and 6-foot-3 and may have walked with a limp or locked knee due to a healed fracture of the right knee. He may have also been partially deaf due to healing trauma in the left ear at the time of his death. The cause of death for this individual has not been determined.

The third set of remains is that of a Hispanic man between the ages of 25 and 35, found in a wooded area in Highland Springs in Henrico County on January 28, 2014. This individual was between 4-foot-8 and 5-foot-3 and had numerous dental restorations. The cause of death for this person has been determined as homicide by violence.

The fourth man’s remains were found in an industrial area by a construction crew on September 26, 2000, in the city of Richmond. This individual was a Black man between the ages of 50 and 70 who was between 5-foot-2 and 5-foot-9 and had healed rib and lower left leg fractures. The cause of death for this individual has not been determined.

The fifth set of remains belonged to a Black man between the ages of 34 and 68 that were found in a residential area in Richmond on October 23, 1995. This person was around 5-foot-9 and had a broken jaw. The cause of death for this individual has not been determined.

The sixth set of remains was of a white man between the ages of 45 and 65 that were found in a wooded area in Brunswick County by a hunter on January 1, 1990. This individual had healed facial and abdominal trauma that may have occurred in a car accident or other traumatic event 15 years before he died. The cause of death for this individual has not been determined.

The last two sets of remains belonged to Hispanic men that were found in Ruther Glen in Caroline County by hunters on November 10, 1988. The older man was between 35 and 45 years old and was 5-foot-5 to 5-foot-9. The younger man was between 17 and 25 and was around 5-foot-6. DNA suggests that the two may have been father and son. Both of these men were killed by blunt force injury to the head and the cases are listed as homicides.