‘To give that closure’: VDH looking for answers in decades-old Richmond cold case

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The Virginia Department of Health’s (VDH) Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) is looking for new leads in a decades-old murder case. It's been nearly 33 years since an unidentified man was found shot to death in Richmond.

It was in a wooded area on East Franklin Street that police found the man found shot dead and wrapped in a blanket. That was on March 9, 1993.

As of March 2026, he's still never been identified, meaning his friends and family have likely never known what happened to him.

The OCME is hoping to change that.

"Sometimes you are the only person [who] has thought about this unidentified case," said Long Term Unidentified Coordinated with OCME Lara Newell. "We just wanna get, you know, the case back out into the public. See if anyone remembers anything from when he was found or maybe they’ve learned something.”

He's described as a Black man, six-foot-one, around 140 pounds, and estimated to be 20 to 39 years old when he was killed. Newell said even if your loved one doesn't fall within the age range, she still encourages you to reach out because the age is just an estimate.

He was wearing a Malcolm X t-shirt, white and turquoise Nikes and a white metal ring around his chain necklace when police found him.

He has hyperpigmented raised scars on the inside of his right arm near his wrist, hyperpigmented raised scars on the inside of his left arm near his elbow, hyperpigmented scars on his upper back near the midline, a hyperpigmented raised scar on the back of his right arm above the elbow and irregular scars on his lower legs.

Newell hopes it's these details that can link a family to this unidentified man.  

A majority of the cases that come into the medical examiner's office don’t have identification issues at all- the person has an ID on them, family or friends are at the scene, a neighbor knows them, fingerprints are on file. Newell works on the cases where these identifying factors aren’t available. She enters any information she has into varying databases to find connections.

"Maybe they have a brother that wasn’t considered missing to them at that time in 1993, but now in 2026, yeah they realize it has been 33 years," she said. “His parents may be deceased already, maybe his siblings are getting up in age. The people who knew him in life are getting older, so we want to be able to connect those people while they’re still around to provide information to us.”

Newell said he’s one of the over 100 unidentified males in the state. There's also over 100 female cases. About 6-10 victims are unidentifiable in the Commonwealth each year.

And while their families don't get answers, no one is held responsible for their deaths either.

"You can’t even start that part of the investigation until you find out who it is," Newell said.

She said when they’ve put a call out to the public for information in the past, she's always gotten at least one phone call. It hasn’t identified the person they were initially looking for, but they’ve been able to help those families start the missing persons process. 

“Even if it doesn’t end up identifying this person, it might help us provide closure on another case," Newell said. "When you’re able to connect with the mom or the sister or the best friend and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got your loved one,’ and to give that closure, to give the remains back so that they can start healing and grieving, I mean it really is amazing to be able to do that.” 

If you have any information, you can contact the OCME's Central District Office or the Richmond Police Department.