RHODE ISLAND, 2003: On Christmas morning in 2003, a security guard on the Johnson & Wales Harborside campus in Providence, Rhode Island discovered the body of a young man leaning up against a chain link fence. Fingerprints would later identify the man as 22-year old Roy Weber. 

Roy was part of a population of men who engaged in street-based sex work in Providence, many of them exchanging sexual acts for money to support their substance use. Almost 20 years later, Roy’s homicide is still unsolved. Police have photos of a man they’ve said could have information about what happened to Roy, and yet no arrests have been made to this day.

Richard Holcomb knew Roy Weber, their lives intertwined by their mutual lifestyle at the time. He’s now in recovery, and Rich has spent much of his adult life advocating and raising awareness for street-based sex work and helping researchers, health care professionals, and the general public better understand the realities of that life, one that he fell into at a young age.

This is the case of Roy Weber, but it’s also the story of Richard Holcomb and how he sought recovery and helped reclaim Roy Weber’s legacy by helping other men like him.

If you have information about the 2003 unsolved homicide of Roy Weber, please contact the Providence Police Department at (401) 272-3121.

Watch Invisible, a documentary about male sex work in Providence, RI

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