A 25-year-old got into a taxi outside a NYC gay bar. He died an hour later.

Social worker Julio Ramirez, 25, met with a friend on April 20 for a night out at Hell’s Kitchen, a Manhattan neighborhood near Times Square in New York known for its vibrant restaurant and bar scene. Their final stop was the Ritz Bar and Lounge, a popular, multi-level gay venue in the heart of neighborhood Restaurant Row.

Surveillance footage from a nearby security camera showed Ramirez leaving the venue with three unidentified men at 3:17 a.m., according to his brother Carlos, who said he had been briefed by investigators. A police source said the four men then boarded a nearby taxi, but Ramirez was alone in the back seat at 4:10 a.m. when the taxi driver confronted a police officer 3 miles away in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood. Contacted and said that his passenger was unresponsive.

Ramirez was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital at 4:49 a.m. on April 21, despite efforts by the officer and the emergency medical services team to save his life, a police source said, adding that the initial cause of death was “possible drug”. Overdose.” Ramirez’s official “cause and manner of death are pending further study,” according to the medical examiner, who told NBC News in an email that it “could take at least a few weeks.” Identified as “John Doe”, his brother said, because neither his wallet nor the phone was with him at the time of his death.

Now, more than a month later, Ramirez’s family and friends are left with more questions than answers as they try to piece together what happened in his final hours. Who were the men who got into the taxi with him? Was he intoxicated? Are investigators prioritizing his case? Where is his phone and wallet? Who drained his bank accounts in the days after his death?

Ramirez’s friends described him as a “cute” and “smart” young man, and according to his brother, Ramirez “believed in serving underprivileged communities.” Originally from Long Island, New York, he moved to New York City last year after earning a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees from the University at Buffalo. He was living and working in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, where he was a bilingual mental health counselor.

Like many gay men in New York City, he was a frequent visitor to Hell’s Kitchen, which is reportedly accompanied by his southern neighbor, Chelsea. Highest concentration of LGBTQ bars and resources in the city – And maybe the world.

On what would be his final night at Hell’s Kitchen, Ramirez meets up with his friend, Carlos Camacho, a 24-year-old aspiring actor who lives in the neighborhood. Camacho said that he and Ramirez met on April 20 at 7 p.m. and visited three venues within half a mile of each other: Rise Bar, a gay cocktail lounge; Mickey Spillane, a bar and restaurant; And, finally, the Ritz Bar and Lounge.

The two friends, who have known each other since June, split before 3 a.m., according to their last text exchange, which Camacho shared with NBC News.

At 2:58, Camacho told Ramirez that he was inside the Ritz, and a minute later, Ramirez replied that he was outside the bar, according to the texts. At 3:10, Ramirez asked his friend to come out. After receiving no response, Ramirez messaged Camacho, who lives nearby, at 3:29 a.m. to ask if he had gone home. Camacho replied at 3:45 a.m. that he was at home and asked his friend to come. Ramirez never responded.

At 12:10 pm on April 21, Camacho sent Ramirez a follow-up message stating “what happened” the night before. An alert popped up informing Camacho that his message to Ramírez had been “read”, although unknown to Camacho at the time, his friend had been pronounced dead seven hours earlier.

Earlier that evening, Ramirez was texting Shiva Campbell, a friend from Buffalo, with whom he was in “constant contact,” according to Campbell. They were talking about saving money and the Adam Sandler movies before Campbell stopped responding at 10:25 p.m. on April 20, according to their last text exchange that Campbell shared with NBC News.

Campbell said she and Ramirez remained close after meeting as college freshmen, and like many young friends, they used the location sharing feature on their iPhones. She had done this for the past several years, so Campbell said she became concerned when an alert came on April 21 at 3:46 a.m. that said, “Julio Ramírez has stopped sharing location with you. ”

She continued to text Ramirez throughout the day on April 21, asking where he was and whether he was okay. Her anxiety turned to alarm when she noticed that the color of the text messages she sent had changed from blue to green, which could indicate that her phone was switched off or she had died.

“Julio never let his phone die,” she said. “Even if he lost his phone, he would text me on his iPad, so I knew something was wrong.”

Campbell’s last text to Ramirez was on April 22 at 8:06 a.m.: “Ramirez, what happened?” He will soon learn that he was pronounced dead more than 24 hours ago.

Carlos Ramirez, 32, said he called his younger brother at noon on April 21 and found it strange that his phone was switched off. He had planned to call her later that evening, but he fell asleep before he had a chance.

While he was at work on April 22, Carlos Ramirez received a call from his girlfriend at 11 a.m. asking him to leave work immediately and call his father. When she called, she found her parents had received an alarming call 20 minutes earlier from Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital informing them that their son, Julio, had died.

“My dad said, ‘It’s really hard, but Julio’s dead,’ and he just started crying,” he recalled. “I just lost it. Wow, I still can’t believe it. That was the worst day of my life.”

Three days later, the Ramirez family went to Julio Ramirez’s apartment to collect some of his personal belongings. Eager for an answer, Carlos Ramirez logged onto his brother’s laptop. He immediately noticed that the Apple iCloud password had been changed, leaving him unable to access most of the applications on his brother’s computer. However, he was able to access Julio Ramirez’s email. He said that when he saw unusual money transfers.

Between April 21, the day Julio Ramirez died, and April 25, his checking and savings accounts were liquidated through third-party applications such as Apple Pay and Zelle, and through Apple Pay and Zelle, Carlos Ramirez said.

“He literally took every dollar he had, all his savings and all his money,” Carlos Ramirez said, adding that about $20,000 was taken from his brother. He said he shared this information with investigators, although the NYPD would not confirm the details to NBC News.

Given these details, and based on surveillance footage investigators had shared with him, Carlos Ramirez said he believed his brother was drugged in a targeted attack that night. and was robbed.

Carlos Ramirez – who did not see the footage himself – said investigators told him that the video shows his brother standing outside the entrance of the Ritz Bar and Lounge for 12 minutes shortly after 3 a.m., then confronted by two men. Together they are seen walking away from the bar, and as they turn the corner, a third man follows them.

“The three men end up in a taxi with Julio,” said Carlos Ramirez as investigators told him. He said the men could not be identified.

Based on the limited information they found together, Carlos Ramírez and at least one friend of his brother, Karina Quimpo, speculated that Julio Ramírez may have slipped. Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB, also known as the “date rape drug”. In liquid form, it is clear and colourless, and just a small amount can cause someone to faint; Taking an overdose can cause coma, respiratory arrest and even Death, In recent years, health officials have observed Increase in GHB use among young Americans, Neither the police nor the medical examiner have indicated that Julio Ramírez had consumed GHB before his death.

Julio Ramirez was buried on April 30 at Pinlawan Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York. Two weeks later, on May 14, his family and friends held a memorial service in Buffalo.

In the weeks following his mysterious death, his loved ones are trying to raise awareness of his story as they await additional information from the NYPD and the city’s medical examiner.