Unidentified
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It occurred to me that if a body was found and nobody knew who it was there should be a record of it. I had bought a book How to find anyone and in there was a part about John Doe’s and they told how to go about it. I ordered a booklet “Death investigation in the US and Canada 1990. I found out that there was a coroner for each county in each state and more that 3000 total. At work we had database software so I made a form letter with Dave’s characteristics on it and sent it to the head coroner for each state. After a while the replies started to come in one of the first was New York state and he said that each county kept separate records and there was no state list. He said there was a male who wash up on the shore of Lake Erie a while back but the characteristics didn’t match Dave. Dave had lived in NYC for a while so I called a coroner there and the first thing he asked me was when did he die. He told me they have a lot of bodies and when they find them they measure them and then they file them by month and year when they were found. 14 states reported that they have no unidentified bodies that match Dave and 2 states reported that we would need to search county by county. The Washoe county Nevada coroner wrote that they had 29 unidentified bodies mostly skeletionized and that he needed dental x-rays of Dave. Some of us use to go to the U of M dental school for cheap dental work. It took a lot longer that a regular dentist the worked in stages and then the teacher would have to check every thing but luckily they kept good records and had a copy of Dave’s x-rays and they were willing to give them to our mother. In march 93 the Nevada coroner wrote that their was no identification possible with the 29 bodies and he took the liberty of sending our information to the California Dept of Justice to compare with their unidentified.
In July 1992 we listed Dave in search reports a missing person magazine that is sent to law enforcement agencies, hospitals and shelters. The first issue that he was in published in January 1993. A police officer Scott Leatherwood from Dalhart Texas saw Dave’s picture. He called us and said that Dave’s photo look like a body that was run over by a train on Feb 5 1987. He sent us a photo in the mail. I think it took 5 day for the photo to arrive it was agonizing to wait. It looked like Dave the guy had about 1 inch long full beard and scraggly hair. It hadn’t occurred to me that we would be able to tell from the photo that was of was not Dave.
Scott sent the photos we provided and the body’s photo to the FBI. They checked Dave’s record and he didn’t have any prints on file. We had found some partial finger prints on some of Dave’s papers. On febuary 26 the FBI finished their photo comparison and reported that the body closely resembles Dave but was inconclusive and they were going to precede with their work on the partial finger prints. They had said that this could take up to 3 months. I remember after about a month I look up the phone number for the FBI finger print division and gave them a call. It was surprising I got some guy at his desk who answered “hello” and not some receptionist screening calls. He told me that it wasn’t done but they were working on it. Scott called on 6-30-93 and said that the FBI had enhanced the body fingerprint and the guy was identified. He was somebody named Heinz from Ohio.
We sent letters to 12 Canadian provinces. I remember a lady from the Yukon territory she asked me if I thought that Dave had gone up there. I told her I hade no idea and she said she call in stead of writing because wondered about the person who would send that letter, she was very kind. 8 provinces replied that they had no one who matched Dave’s description and Quebec was still looking.
March 93 Chico Newell of the forensic identification unit for the province of British Columbia called. He had a unidentified body with matching hair color, age, height, left leg and arm shorter that the right, scoliosis, and matching factures in the leg and shoulder. What are the odds? The person had crawled way up under a bridge and was dead for about a year when they found him in 1990. We asked Chico about dental records but he said the person had no teeth. It certainly is a depressing scenario for anyone let alone your older brother. We found a letter from Dave’s doctor to the draft board about his auto accident when Chico read it he said it ruled Dave out because his fracture had healed properly and the person under the bridge leg was never set after he broke it. It was unsettling to have so many similarities and it not being him. It still was a relief.
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In July 1992 we listed Dave in search reports a missing person magazine that is sent to law enforcement agencies, hospitals and shelters. The first issue that he was in published in January 1993. A police officer Scott Leatherwood from Dalhart Texas saw Dave’s picture. He called us and said that Dave’s photo look like a body that was run over by a train on Feb 5 1987. He sent us a photo in the mail. I think it took 5 day for the photo to arrive it was agonizing to wait. It looked like Dave the guy had about 1 inch long full beard and scraggly hair. It hadn’t occurred to me that we would be able to tell from the photo that was of was not Dave.
Scott sent the photos we provided and the body’s photo to the FBI. They checked Dave’s record and he didn’t have any prints on file. We had found some partial finger prints on some of Dave’s papers. On febuary 26 the FBI finished their photo comparison and reported that the body closely resembles Dave but was inconclusive and they were going to precede with their work on the partial finger prints. They had said that this could take up to 3 months. I remember after about a month I look up the phone number for the FBI finger print division and gave them a call. It was surprising I got some guy at his desk who answered “hello” and not some receptionist screening calls. He told me that it wasn’t done but they were working on it. Scott called on 6-30-93 and said that the FBI had enhanced the body fingerprint and the guy was identified. He was somebody named Heinz from Ohio.
We sent letters to 12 Canadian provinces. I remember a lady from the Yukon territory she asked me if I thought that Dave had gone up there. I told her I hade no idea and she said she call in stead of writing because wondered about the person who would send that letter, she was very kind. 8 provinces replied that they had no one who matched Dave’s description and Quebec was still looking.
March 93 Chico Newell of the forensic identification unit for the province of British Columbia called. He had a unidentified body with matching hair color, age, height, left leg and arm shorter that the right, scoliosis, and matching factures in the leg and shoulder. What are the odds? The person had crawled way up under a bridge and was dead for about a year when they found him in 1990. We asked Chico about dental records but he said the person had no teeth. It certainly is a depressing scenario for anyone let alone your older brother. We found a letter from Dave’s doctor to the draft board about his auto accident when Chico read it he said it ruled Dave out because his fracture had healed properly and the person under the bridge leg was never set after he broke it. It was unsettling to have so many similarities and it not being him. It still was a relief.
Next Chapter