2 Men Were Found Dead After Nights Out at N.Y.C. Gay Bars. Then Police Uncovered a Chilling Pattern By Christina Coulter

Two men died months apart after nights out at New York City gay bars in 2022 — deaths that would later be linked to a series of druggings and robberies targeting the city’s LGBTQ nightlife scene.

Julio Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, and John Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant visiting from Washington, D.C., were each found dead after separate nights out in Manhattan. In both cases, their phones were missing and tens of thousands of dollars had been withdrawn from their bank accounts. At the time, authorities initially examined the deaths as possible overdoses.

The case is the subject of an upcoming episode of People Magazine Investigates. Titled “Death in Hell’s Kitchen,” the episode airs Monday, Monday, Jan. 19 at 9/8c. (An exclusive clip is shown below.)

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. 

As PEOPLE previously reported, Ramirez went out with a friend in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood on April 20, 2022. After making what would be his final stop of the night, he was seen on surveillance footage getting into a taxi with three men. About an hour later, the men exited the vehicle. Ramirez was found unresponsive in the back seat and later pronounced dead at a hospital.

In the days that followed, Ramirez’s longtime friend Shiva Campbell says she began to realize something was wrong.

“I woke up on Thursday, April 21, and I saw that I had the notification that Julio’s location was turned off for me,” Campbell says in the upcoming episode. “We always shared our location with each other, just making sure that we were safe, and so I texted him. And he didn’t say anything to me.”

Campbell says the silence only grew more alarming as the day went on. “We talk all day every day, and so by that night I knew that something’s wrong,” she says. “I called Julio’s mom and she hadn’t heard from him either — she was just crying on the phone because she was so worried.”

Later that day, Campbell says, Ramirez’s job called to say he had not shown up for work.

Weeks later, a second death raised further questions. Umberger was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on June 1, four days after visiting a Hell’s Kitchen bar while in New York from Washington, D.C. Surveillance footage later showed Umberger sitting in the back of a cab with three men. Two of them escorted him into the townhouse where he was staying before returning to the vehicle less than an hour later.

Like Ramirez, Umberger’s phone and wallet were missing. More than $20,000 had been withdrawn from his bank accounts. His mother later questioned whether his death was connected to Ramirez’s after learning of the similarities between the cases.

At the same time, other men came forward saying they believed they had been drugged and robbed after nights out at Manhattan gay bars but survived. Some said they woke up disoriented, with no memory of how they had gotten home, only to later discover thousands of dollars missing from their accounts.

As reports mounted, flyers warning patrons to remain vigilant were distributed throughout Hell’s Kitchen. Authorities later opened homicide investigations into both Ramirez’s and Umberger’s deaths.

Prosecutors later said that three men — Jayqwan Hamilton, Robert DeMaio and Jacob Barroso — targeted victims outside gay bars, drugging them with fentanyl and exploiting their incapacitation to steal money and personal property, per previous PEOPLE coverage. Hamilton and DeMaio were charged in the deaths of both Ramirez and Umberger, while Barroso was charged in Ramirez’s killing.

In May 2025, all three were sentenced. Hamilton and DeMaio received sentences of 40 years to life in prison, while Barroso was sentenced to 20 years to life.

People Magazine Investigates revisits the case in an episode airing Monday at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery and across streaming platforms.

People Magazine Investigates will air Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET on Investigation Discovery, culminating with its dramatic season finale, “Where Is Judith?” which examines a serial predator haunting Florida’s Gulf Coast on April 13.

People Magazine Investigates: Death in Hell’s Kitchen airs Monday, Monday, Jan. 19 at 9/8c.