A man is found shot to death in a field across from a middle school In the autumn of 1969, a young man named Ronald Eugene Keith, a 19-year-old African American male, vanished from the Virginia Beach, Virginia area. He was last seen by his family at approximately 11:00 p.m. on the evening of October 16, 1969. Known to frequent the Tidewater cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Chesapeake, his disappearance left a void of information for several months.
The search for Ronald came to a grim conclusion on Saturday, January 24, 1970.
His body was discovered in a field located in the 3000 block of South Lynnhaven Road, directly across the street from what was then Plaza Middle School. The landscape of this area has since changed, with apartment buildings and businesses now occupying the once-empty field. An investigation by the Medical Examiner determined that Ronald Eugene Keith's life had been ended by a gunshot wound, and his death was ruled a homicide.
Despite the passage of time, the case of Ronald Eugene Keith's murder remains an open and unsolved investigation. The Virginia Beach Police Department continues to list it as a cold case, with no publicly available information regarding any suspects or arrests that have been made in connection with his death. The circumstances surrounding his disappearance and subsequent murder remain a mystery.
