Police: Woman’s death on North Green ruled homicide

Wichita police have no suspects and no leads in the city’s latest homicide, which was discovered Thursday night in a house on the corner of 23rd and North Green.

Ciera Ray, 27, was found by her boyfriend in the two-bedroom home at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday when he returned from an out-of-town business trip, Lt. Todd Ojile said Friday. When he entered the house, the boyfriend was greeted by Ray’s 3-year-old daughter, “who told him where her mother was,” Ojile said.

Ray suffered “multiple injuries” and had been dead for several hours, he said. Police would not disclose how Ray died.

“There did not appear to be any signs of a struggle,” Ojile said.

“At this time, we have very limited information on the incident,” he said. The child “had been in the residence throughout the day by herself.”

Investigators are piecing together Ray’s activities in the final 24 to 36 hours of her life – “where she was, what she was doing, who she may have been with,” Ojile said.

From what they can tell so far, Ojile said, she was last heard from at about 11 p.m. on Wednesday. Crime scene technicians had finished processing the house by mid-morning Friday.

Crime scene tape still shrouded the house and fence that protected a front yard littered with children’s toys on Friday afternoon. A marked police car stood guard next to the house.

In the block south of the small white house, young boys played basketball in the street. Another group of boys played in the front yard of a house just northeast of where Ray lived.

“She was a beautiful person,” said a friend of Ray’s who didn’t want to give her name. “I’m very sad about it, and I’m hurt about it.”

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Police Department’s homicide section at 316-268-4181 or Crime Stoppers at 316-267-2111.

Ray is the 13th homicide of the year in Wichita, Ojile said.

This story was originally published June 26, 2015 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Police: Woman’s death on North Green ruled homicide."