In 2002, a body was found near a South Richmond brickyard. He’s never been identified.

On Aug. 27, 2002, the body of a man was found in a ravine next to a brickyard in Blackwell. 

Twenty-three years later, officials still don’t know who he was or how he ended up there, to one side of Riverside Brick & Supply Company at 12th and Maury streets in South Richmond, badly decomposed and with no identifying markers beyond a pair of blue slip-on size 10 shoes. 

DNA testing done in 2012 revealed that the man was Black and somewhere between 45 and 60 years old. But it turned up no matches that could lead to a name.

“He’s been unidentified for 23 years,” said Lara Newell, the long-term unidentified coordinator for Virginia’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. “That’s a whole adult, you know. That’s an adult that can vote and can drink and they can drive, and they probably have a job. If they had a child, that child is all grown up now and may have their own family.” 

Newell is hoping that by bringing the case back into the public eye, someone might be able to come forward with information that could lead to the man’s identification. 

“Maybe they have a family member that they didn’t think was a missing person back then, but now they haven’t heard from them in a while,” she said. Or, she added, “maybe someone is now willing to provide information to the medical examiner or law enforcement, or they’ve come to the realization that their loved one might be dead, and now they’re willing to investigate the possibility that they are one of our identified decedents.” 

The man from the brickyard is one of about 335 Virginians whose remains the state has been unable to identify and the first to be highlighted in a broader push by officials to revive those cold cases and bring whatever closure might be possible. 

The medical examiner’s office has done a facial reconstruction of what the man may have looked like around the time of his death. Newell cautioned that the images aren’t intended to be an exact match; instead, she said, they are “just to kind of spark recognition.” 

Similarly, the estimated age range of the man is just the examiner’s best guess and not meant to rule out someone who might have been within a few years of that in August 2002. 

Also still undetermined: the man’s cause of death. Newell said that at the time of his discovery by construction workers at the brickyard, he had bricks on top of him, but it wasn’t clear whether they had been placed there on purpose or had just inadvertently rolled on top of him after being dumped from the site. 

The medical examiner found no evidence of trauma. But the body’s state of decomposition also meant there was limited evidence to work with. 

A federal grant has allowed Newell to send the man’s remains out for further genetic testing, but in the meantime she’s hoping that new information might emerge to help bypass some of that process.

“You don't know which avenue is going to give you the information to identify the person,” she said. “We have to take anything and everything that we can.” 

Anyone with possible information about this case can call the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner at 804-786-3174 and ask for Newell or reach out to the Richmond Police Department. 

Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at svogelsong@richmonder.org