Raymond Rapuano, a 46-year-old white man from Delaware City, was found dead on October 6, 1988, at a well station off Delaware Route 9 just outside town. He was discovered alongside 36-year-old Thomas Trala. Investigators reported Rapuano died of apparent gunshot wounds; the medical examiner could not determine the manner of death for Trala.

The scene was a quiet utility site that became the location of a fatal attack whose motive and perpetrator remain unknown. Rapuano’s name continues to appear on public rosters of unsolved homicides and on memorial pages marking the date and city, but no fuller account of the hours before the discovery has emerged. No arrests have been announced, no suspects publicly identified, and the Delaware State Police list the investigation as open and ask anyone with information to contact their cold case unit.

Did anyone in the area around Delaware Route 9 in 1988 recall unusual activity or know either man’s movements that night?