Police Release Details about Man Found Burning on Roadside

By Sam Thrift Thursday, January 05, 2012

The James City County Police Department needs help identifying the body of a man found burning Tuesday night on the side of the road in the 9300 block of Merrimac Trail.

An autopsy performed on the unidentified black male by the Richmond Medical Examiner’s Office yesterday morning showed the victim’s death was caused by the fire, according to a press release. The James City County Police are investigating the case as a homicide.

The victim is 28 to 35 years old, 6 feet 1 inch tall, 176 pounds, with a goatee and three gold caps on his front teeth. He was wearing dark blue Dickies overalls and red and burgundy Nike Air shoes. He was also wearing a white shirt with a tiger character emblem on the front of the shirt.

The victim had numerous tattoos on his body. The police warned that the photos of the tattoos are somewhat graphic, but were necessary to release to more quickly identify the victim in this case. Because of their graphic nature, WYDaily has chosen not to publish the photos in favor of describing them.

The tattoos were located on the victim’s upper and middle back, chest, stomach, back right leg, right arm and shoulder.

The tattoo on the victim’s upper back consists of the capital letters “ELOHIM,” which is a Hebrew word for God. His middle back tattoo is a star with the number seven over the Islamic symbol the crescent moon. On his chest, the victim has an Ankh — an ancient Egyptian symbol that looks like a cross with a loop on the top — with two headstones on each side with the inscription life and death, respectively.

The victim had a tattoo of a heart with a halo, angel wings, devil horns with the numbers 7 and 4 in between them and a devil tail. The victim has a pirate skull, dice, the number seven with a crown and the quote “Family 4 Life” on his arm and wrist. On the victim’s back leg, there appears to be a clock on a diamond of bricks with the name “Irene” written on top.

Anyone with information as to the identity of this victim is asked to call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP or Investigator Jason Shadrix at (757) 259-5159.