A woman who says she was a friend of a gay man whose body was found on July 8 on a roadway in Sterling, Va,. and whose death has been listed as a homicide told a local newspaper she believes her friend was the victim of a hate crime based on his sexual orientation.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, which is investigating the case, released a statement saying 24-year-old Jose I. Escobar Menendez, a resident of Winchester, Va., was found dead in a roadway along Emerald Point Terrace near Winding Road in the Sterling area around 3:30 a.m.
The Sheriff’s Office has declined to disclose the cause of death other than saying it was a homicide and has not disclosed that Menendez was gay or that the incident may be a hate crime.