Julio Ramirez Bio – Julio Ramirez Wiki
Julio Ramirez and John Umberger, 33, died amid a suspected rash of druggings and robberies in New York City’s LGBTQ nightlife scene.
AGE:
Julio Ramirez was 25 years old.
DETAIL OF INCIDENCE:
The deaths of Julio Ramirez, 25, and John Umberger, 33, are being investigated by the NYPD’s homicide unit after both were allegedly drugged at popular gay bars and later found dead with thousands of dollars withdrawn from their accounts, The New York Times reported Saturday, while others have claimed to have survived similar experiences.
An NYPD spokesperson says in a statement to PEOPLE that authorities are working with multiple agencies “to investigate several incidents where individuals have been victims of either robberies or assault. Some of the victims are members of the LGBTQIA+ community, however, it is believed that not all of the victims are. It is also believed that the motivation for these assaults/robberies is monetary gain.”
“The deaths of John Umberger and Julio Ramirez are currently under investigation and the medical examiner will determine their causes of death,” the NYPD statement adds.
Ramirez, a social worker, went out with a friend in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan on April 20, NBC News reported. After making what would be their final stop of the night at the Ritz Bar and Lounge, Ramirez was seen on surveillance footage getting in a cab with three men at 3:17 a.m.
Around an hour later, the three men left the vehicle, but Ramirez was unresponsive in the backseat. The taxi driver notified a police officer on the Lower East Side and emergency medical services rendered aid shortly after, but he was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 4:49 a.m.
The cause of death was listed by the NYPD as a “possible drug overdose,” although the medical examiner said the “cause and manner of death are pending further study,” according to NBC. As the Times noted, most date rape drugs don’t stay in the system long enough to be detected in a standard drug test.
“Nobody thought it was a crime initially, they had just thought he had taken something,” Julio’s older brother Carlos Ramirez told the Times. “I knew somebody had given him something and he did not know they had.”
Carlos also told NBC that he visited Julio’s apartment three days after his death and discovered that his sibling’s iCloud password had been changed and his checking and savings accounts depleted by approximately $20,000.
Umberger’s mother Linda Clary made a connection to Ramirez’s death after her son was found dead on June 1, WPIX reported in November. His death occurred four days after he visited The Q NYC while visiting from Washington, D.C., where he worked as a political consultant.
Surveillance footage at the East Side townhouse where he was staying showed Umberger sitting in the back of a cab with three men before two of them escorted him inside. The unidentified pair returned to the cab less than an hour later.
“It’s the same thing with Julio’s case, in that you have John sandwiched between two people in the back seat of a car,” Clary told WCBS-TV.
Also similar to Ramirez’s death, Clary said that her son’s phone was stolen and his wallet cleared of his debit cards, credit cards, and diver’s license.
According to the Times, police told Clary that her son was robbed on the street before he overdosed at home, but she later saw that more than $20,000 was withdrawn from his accounts.
The NYPD opened a homicide investigation into both deaths after Clary made the trip from Georgia to N.Y.C. with her findings. She noted to WPIX that a third possible victim could be linked after a married man visiting from out of town was found dead between the time of her son and Ramirez’s deaths.
Meanwhile, at least five men have reported similar experiences. Oscar Alarcon, 33, told the Times that he woke up on the floor of a Midtown hotel in March without any memory of how he got there following a night out at the Ritz.
He later filed a police report after realizing $2,000 had been transferred from his account. “At that time, they didn’t seem like they were interested,” Alarcon said.
Tyler Burt, 27, alleged that he faced the same skepticism after he told police that he believed he was drugged at the Boiler Room last December and woke up with $25,000 missing from his account.
“They asked me if I had been assaulted, and I was like, ‘Getting drugged is assault,'” Burt told the Times. “It seemed like they thought being drugged wasn’t even a possibility. They said, ‘Maybe you were but that isn’t really relevant to the robbery.'”
Since Ramirez and Umberger’s death, New York City Council member Erik Bottcher and volunteers have passed out flyers in Hell’s Kitchen, notifying gay men of the suspected druggings and warning them to be “extra vigilant.”