Joseph Alex Ray, 26, was found decomposed on an on-ramp to Interstate 64 from South Military Highway in Chesapeake, Virginia. The body was discovered July 19, 1988; he had last been seen July 12, 1988. Because of advanced decomposition, a definitive cause of death could not initially be determined, but the city of Chesapeake lists his death as a homicide by strangulation.

Ray’s case was investigated alongside a string of similar killings in the Hampton Roads area. Victims in the series were often found nude and strangled in secluded locations across Chesapeake, Suffolk and Isle of Wight County; many had ties to the gay community and were known to hitchhike. A task force was formed to examine a suspected serial killer believed responsible for multiple deaths between 1987 and 1995.

Elton Manning Jackson, known as The Hampton Roads Killer, was later convicted in an unrelated 1996 murder and is suspected in other similar cases, but no public information links him officially to Ray’s death. The investigation into Joseph Alex Ray remains open and unsolved with no arrests or charges announced. Did anyone in the area know Joseph or see him the week before July 19, 1988?