549451_10151649741395243_833954322_n

Handsome gay aspiring model/actor Ryan Singleton’s 24-year-old body was found decomposing in a desert last month after the young man had gone missing for two months.

According to his mother in an interview with Fox 5 News in Atlanta, the Georgia native had moved to Los Angeles to pursue his dreams of being an actor and model back in early July of this year. Shortly after, he booked a rental car and drove to New Mexico, Arizona and Las Vegas for a weekend trip.

On his way back a surveillance camera picked him up at a AM/PM gas station in Baker, California. He then mysteriously went missing until September (two months later) when joggers stumbled upon his “severely decomposed” remains in the desert just over a mile behind the AM/PM gas station. His rental car was found a few miles away in Death Valley, California.

If that wasn’t tragic enough, Ryan Singleton’s “mostly intact” body was missing all of his internal organs.

“There were no organs,” Singleton’s mother, Iris Flowers, told FOX 5 Atlanta. “[The police] said, ‘Ma’am, there were no eyes, there was no heart, there were no lungs, there was no liver, there were no kidneys.”

 The Baker coroner’s office still has not determined a cause of death yet they believe the organ loss may be wild animal related.

“I don’t know of an animal that comes to a body and just picks out certain parts of the body,” said Ryan’s mother.  “I don’t think it was animal activity at all.”

To make this horrific story even more depressing, Ryan Singleton had just gotten married to his friend & husband Kithe Brewster (a fashion stylist) in July in a classy, private ceremony in New York City.

562722_10151793528967269_883060578_n

1010839_10151793536322269_848959058_n

995125_10151793556487269_1445359064_n

My initial reaction to this news was that the young man was a victim of being lured out to a remote location in the hopes of landing a prime acting or modeling job. A young, attractive man with big dreams alone in a new city…He was likely full of enthusiasm to attack any career opportunity, even if it was sketchy. However, Ryan’s mother says he was on his way back from the weekend trip which presumes that everything went fine, if it was even work related in the first place.

So that brings us to the missing organs. This instantly makes me wonder if Ryan was the victim of an organ harvester, someone who drugs and/or kills innocent people to steal their organs for the black market. True, this seems far-fetched and out of a bad horror movie, but Singleton’s rental car marked him as an out-of-towner and he was in the prime age and physical shape for targeting.

Okay, even if this was not the case and wild animals/birds had devoured his organs in the two months he was missing, this doesn’t explain how the man died in the first place…in the middle of the desert of all places…with his car found miles away.

Understandably, his mother and husband deserve answers. What possibly makes this frustrating for them is they have no clear motive for why Ryan was killed.

It appears that he wasn’t a victim of a hate crime, targeted for being gay. The Atlanta Fox 5 news report never mentions his sexuality, I only discovered it from visiting Singleton’s Facebook page. While hearing that a gay man wasn’t killed for being gay would normally be good news, in this case it almost makes it worse. At least then the family, friends and sympathetic supporters would know who and what to blame, even if it were a large vague concept like “homophobia.”

So far, what we’re left with is a murder mystery seemingly straight out of a typical episode of C.S.I. or Law & Order: SVU…However, unlike “ripped from the headlines” television shows where cases are solved in less than an hour, we’re no closer to finding out what happened to 24-year-old Ryan Singleton than when his body was discovered a month ago.

While tragic, Ryan’s story is filled with inspiration and positivity. Not only was he fearlessly and happily living his life as a gay man, he took the initiative to follow his dreams against all odds…at only 24-years-old. This should be a reminder to all gay men out there that we are not promised tomorrow. Live for today and enjoy every minute of it.

If you knew Ryan Singleton personally or just want to pay your respects/send flowers, the funeral services will be held Saturday, October 26, 2013 at 11:00am at the Stocks Funeral Home & Kirkwood Chapel in Atlanta, Georgia.

1375886_10151996612902269_200166591_n

 

RYAN SINGLETON’S MODELING PHOTOS

26878_10150176654055243_2969257_n

251955_10151988124455243_582026599_n

20173_459337250242_3946884_n

6000_264062730242_18983_n

6000_264939380242_1025702_n

25531_10150112753030243_7168952_n