‘He vanished’: Mother, widow grieving after husband found dead behind recycling plant

Jul 27, 2025 - 00:25

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‘He vanished’: Mother, widow grieving after husband found dead behind recycling plant

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- A Richmond mother is left devastated after her husband, 30-year-old Quamel Washington was found dead behind a recycling plant just days after he was reported missing.

Alexis Gregory, Washington’s wife and the mother of their four children, says her husband disappeared without a trace on Monday, July 7.

A week later, police discovered his body, badly decomposed, with no clear explanation of how he got there.

Alexis Gregory, wife of 30-year-old Quamel Washington: Photo courtesy of 8News Sahara Sriramen

“Once he left this doorstep, he vanished,” Gregory said in an interview with 8News. “There’s no trace of him.”

Gregory said July 7 was already an emotionally difficult day for Washington — it would’ve been his late mother’s birthday. While he woke up somber, she said nothing seemed particularly unusual.

“He was sad, but nothing to where it would be suspicious… like I’d think he would go missing or something,” she said.

She recalled him saying he wanted to visit his sister, and due to him suffering from seizures, she ordered him a Lyft to make the trip safely. That ride marked the last time anyone definitively saw or heard from him.

Quamel Washington with family. Photo courtesy of Alexis Gregory

“He said, ‘Ok, I’ll call you when I have Wi-Fi,' and that was it, he never reached back out to me, his family,” Gregory said. “That was the last time his phone said he was active.”

She said police told her the Lyft driver remembers picking up and dropping off someone named “Q,” Quamel’s nickname, but couldn’t recall if it was a man or a woman.

No one in his family, including the sister he intended to visit, saw him that day. “It’s very strange. Suspicious,” Gregory said.

A week later, on July 14, police found a body behind a recycling plant in Richmond. His wallet was still on him, and was wearing the shoes Gregory said he left the house in.

However due to the condition of his remains, it made it impossible for police to identify him at first.

“They were able to puff up one of his fingers to get a print,” Gregory said.

Even with confirmation it was him, the grief hasn’t come with clarity. Gregory said the recycling plant is hours away on foot from his sister’s home, and it wasn’t a place Washington was familiar with. More than anything, she said it’s out of character for him to vanish like this.

“That was my best friend. He was a loving father… the best stepdad to my two daughters,” she said. “He would’ve done anything — he did do anything for them.”

Quamel Washington with family. Photo courtesy of Alexis Gregory

Gregory is now raising the children on her own and said she’s still trying to make sense of it all while preserving her husband’s memory for their kids.

“It’s so hard because we’ve always only lived here, I just feel like everything here reminds me of him and I want to keep that,” she said. “But I also want to… I don’t know… start over, too.”

Gregory said their family will honor Washington the way he would have wanted, through music, and by doing what he looked forward to most.

“He was like, ‘I can’t wait to play basketball with you guys.’ So I think we’re going to definitely do that in honor of him,” she said.

Richmond Police confirmed that the case remains a death investigation. Gregory said she’s still waiting on a toxicology report and surveillance video from the area where he was found.

Until then, she’s holding on to memories, and hoping for answers.

This is a developing story. Stay with 8News for updates.