The body of missing Florida State University student Ryan Uhre has been found in a building on College Avenue in downtown Tallahassee, just steps away from the location where he disappeared more than two weeks ago.
According to WCTV, police discovered Uhreâs body inside the abandoned building after noticing one of the windows had not been boarded up.
Uhreâs disappearance caught the attention of South Florida Gay News publisher Norm Kent last week, who published an editorial claiming Uhre was gay, albeit not openly, and that the mediaâs initial reluctance to report that fact may have hindered the search. Kent believed Uhre could have possibly been the victim of a hate crime, gay kidnapping, or something of the sort.
There are no further details at the time of posting, weâll keep you updated as they roll in.
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Black Pegasus
A tragic and unfortunate outcome. Two questions come to mind:
1. How is it considered a “hate crime” when Ryan was NOT openly gay?
2. If his body was found only steps away from the last location he was spotted, why didn’t the police conduct a thorough search of the abandon buildings?
Dixie Rect
Sorry to hear about this. The press is reporting that no foul play has been suspected, so not sure where all the hate crime suspicions are coming from? Let the police do their work. Time will tell.
sportyguy1983
A hate crime is based on the mindset of the criminal. You can be straight and the victim of a hate crime if your attacker believes you are gay (or black or some other protected class). As for Norm Kent, he is an obvious scumbag. Ehre’s sexuality would not have helped solve his disappearance or now his murder. His sexuality might help give a motive, but will not solve the crime. He is the kind of person that thinks the world revolves around a person’s sexuality.
Dakotahgeo
This is indeed so sad. Hopefully they catch the assailant(s) and hang them slightly off the ground with only their toes touching. Suffering seems to bring a new perspective to these worthless minds.
viveutvivas
@sportyguy1983, I can conceive of a number of ways in which Ehre’s sexuality may be helpful in solving the cause of death.
pierre
What a damn shame.
SteveDenver
Florida and its police aren’t improving their reputations.
Mdterp01
Very sad news to hear that this young man was found dead. I hope they figure out what happened to him and if it was homicide that the person or persons are brought to justice. Thats just damn sad.
hyhybt
Without further information, it’s possible his was a natural or accidental death of some sort, in which case it wouldn’t be a crime at all, hate or otherwise.
FLOGGERDADNYC
And so it goes….another body, another plot…..
Maharajah
So, you know what is really sad. Even if Ryan’s killer were found – the absolute joke that is the Floridian Legal System would have likely acquitted him. There are no safe minorities in this state. As a queer man of color, “Stand your ground” is akin to the rope around my neck – a noose – verified daily by the mis-carriages of justice. I do not, for a minute, blame Ryan for allegedly being ‘in the closet’. What safety would he have had without it here, I cannot say.
We’ve lost a man, a boy really, and seeing the community grieve for him is perhaps the only blessing to the snuffing out of this life.
His blood, and the lives of so many of us, members of minorities; in Florida is legally sanction-able as worthless of respect, or justice.
Aromaeus
A straight person can’t be the victim of a hate crime what are you even talking about? Just like white people can’t be victims of systematic racism. Shut up.
Wingfield
Sad : (. The reality though is that these days people who are missing for more than a day rarely are found alive. Hopefully they piece this together soon.
Jonty Coppersmith
@Aromaeus:
Straight people can most definitely be the victims of hate crimes, and white people can be the victims of racism.
hyhybt
@Maharajah: again, we do not yet know this was even a murder, much less the motive. If it was, say, an ordinary robbery, or if he climbed through the window out of curiosity and hit his head, for example, that he may have been gay doesn’t enter into it.
tada-no
@SteveDenver: What didn’t the police do? Cops can’t create drama of a gay hate crime victim when there is zero evidence to support it. The media can not ethically spin a gay victim story when there is no connection. Just because some gay blogger thinks every gay person warrants national attention when he goes missing, it doesn’t make it so. What’s sad is that this victim has been used for political noise when he wasn’t even completely out with family and friends.
darkanser
I live in South Florida and I remember hearing Uhre’s father talking on the local news about receiving a tip that his son might have been spotted at Rosie’s Bar & Grill in Wilton Manors, Florida. Not being familiar with Rosie’s, I must admit the Wilton Manors part of the report got my gaydar up. Anyone familiar with the South Florida gay scene knows that Wilton Manors is a site of many gay establishments. It was never stated in the news that I’ve seen, however, that this Ryan Uhre was gay or might have been gay. I’m first reading this here. Turns out apparently, he never got far from where he was last seen. Robbery was apparently not a factor for wallet, money and cellphone were with him. So I suppose this sighting in Wilton Manors was just an honest mistake. Yet I read elsewhere that phone records show his cellphone was briefly turned on in the Pompano Beach area which is in north Broward county. This story/mystery is truly unfolding as we speak and it would behoove all of us not to jump to conclusions.
LadyL
It’s entirely possible of course for a gay person to die an accidental death. People do every day, regardless of their orientation.
______________
On the other hand so many of us have been victims of harassment or bashings that the mystery surrounding his disappearance and death has a raised an immediate red flag in my mind. It could be that some deadly encounter took place, maybe a date that went horribly wrong or that might even have been a setup from the start by someone targeting gay men. Just because Ryan wasn’t “out” doesn’t mean he wasn’t sexually and romantically active.
And I don’t know Norm Kent, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was trying to make a point about how the closet mentality can make it harder to learn the truth about a death and bring killers to justice. In Chicago we have an ongoing problem of black gay youth dying either by suicide or by homicide and the issue going unaddressed, because the families don’t want it known that their dead child was gay and the media is reluctant to report it.
niles
Ace police work there. It two weeks to search the abandoned building next to the point of disappearance.
jonjct
street hook-up, abandoned building, something went wrong, homosexual panic and the gay guy ends up dead. what’s the mystery? it’s been done before.
Tackle
Funny thing: On Feb,14, @Oilburner, posted that his friend Monica, who is kinda psyhic siad “this guy is dead.” And on Feb, 15, poster @Seaguy
sarcastically wrote about calling Dionne Warwick at the psychic Friends Network, and said that his friend Monica was a fake. Well I guess NOT.
misterhollywood
This is very sad
stanhope
@Dixie Rect: Since when have the police been a friend of the gay community?
stanhope
@niles: amen
stanhope
@jonjct: to minimize this tragedy as you have is inexcusable.
hyhybt
@jonjct: That you can provide a plausible scenario to explain the very few facts we actually know does not mean it’s the truth. There are many other possibilities. So why do you speak as if your imagined solution is the obvious and only one; as if anyone who entertains the notion that it even *might* be otherwise (and, therefore, that the situation is a bit mysterious) is being silly?
Sebizzar
@LadyL: Totally agree. It’s just yet another sad factor to the death of any gay person đ
I hope they can figure out what really happened soon.
R.I.P. young man.
LifeNewbie20s
So sad. Equally as sad is that people are trying to force the fact that he was gay in front of the story. It makes no difference and if he wasn’t out, it’s a violation of privacy for a person who has clearly suffered at the hands of others enough.
nandaric
@LifeNewbie20s: What on earth are you talking about? His sexual orientation could explain not only his disappearance but could help explain how he ended up dead. People typically don’t randomly end up dead in abandoned buildings unless foul play was involved. Not pursuing that angle simply because it may be distasteful for some is not only irresponsible of his family and the police who are heading this investigation but also extremely disrespectful to this young man whose life was cut short. All details of a person’s life are important when they go missing or end up murdered. What is more important here? Protecting the delicate sensibilities of certain people or finding out the truth?
nandaric
Not to mention the fact that even if he isn’t gay, it is worth looking into anyone he was involved with gay or straight or whatever.