On March 1, 1999, 3 young adults found the head of 39-year-old Henry "Ed" Northington on the walkway on the south end of the bridge on the 1900 block of Texas Ave. in Richmond, Virginia. The head was sitting in an upright position and was obviously placed there by somebody.
Several hundred yards away Ed's body was found at "the tubes" a homeless site upriver from Hollywood Cemetery anchored by twin drainage tunnels. Homeless people would use these tunnels as sleeping shelters. Apparently, this is the area Henry had been staying in. His clothes were thrown into the James River. It's also covered in heavy stones and boulders one of them could have been the murder weapon. Ed at the time was also gay. The place where his head was found was a cruising spot for gays at the time and police suspected it possibly been a hate crime.
He was killed by acute crush injury to his chest and abdomen breaking several ribs. His ribs had lacerated his lungs, diaphragm, and spleen killing him. His killer or killers then decapitated him with a knife between the 3rd or 4th cervical vertebrae.
At the time Henry was suffering from alcoholism and depression and HIV. His alcoholism caused him to isolate himself from friends and family. Some of his family didn't entirely accept him when he came out as gay and this caused him to search for acceptance. He was also not well-liked in the gay community as he was seen as pushy and had frequently been kicked out of gay bars.
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