After five long months of searching for their lost loved one, the family of Andre Gray may begin to find closure. On March 26, the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Major Crimes confirmed Gray’s body had been found with a gunshot wound down stream in the Ohio River in West Virginia. Gray’s death had been ruled a homicide.
Police announced Hubert Wingate as a person of interest in the case of Gray’s death. Wingate was already in the Allegheny County Jail due to a previous arrest for an outstanding warrant for an assault in Colorado. He was picked up with a semi-automatic handgun on his person.
At a press conference held late March 26, police said Gray’s body was discovered on March 20 after the Brook County Sheriffs Office and Follansbee Police Department responded to a call of a body recovered near a barge by the Market Street Bridge over the river. He was taken to Charleston, W. Va., where he was identified.
It was on March 25 that the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police were notified of the recovery of Gray’s body.
Gray, 34, was discovered missing on Oct. 25, 2014, after his mother, Victoria Gray-Tillman, received a call from her daughter that she could not reach Gray and the two went to his Lawrenceville apartment and found it ransacked—electronics had been taken, there were traces of bleach on a carpet, a roll of duct tape—and the dog was gone as well. Gray’s car was also found days later in the North Side; all burned up.
According to a release at this evening’s press conference, Gray-Tillman said, “Now I can begin my closure process. It’s been a long time coming…It’s a mother’s worse nightmare—their child being out there and it’s the not knowing. So I thank God for all the people, the family and the prayers.”
Gray’s dog has not been found.
While Gray was missing, the family held several vigils and offered a reward.
Also on the same day that Gray’s body was discovered, authorities in Wheeling, W.Va., recovered the body of Paul Kochu who had last been seen in the South Side on Dec. 16, 2014. No cause of death has been ruled at this time.
Anyone with information about the Gray homicide is asked to call the Homicide Unit at 412-323-7161.
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