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Missing Persons and Unidentified Persons Cold Case Articles |
National database solves case of man found in Niagara River in 1994
The man was from Ohio. He had a family, a wife and children. Park police officials did not release the man’s identity.
“He had been kind of a drifter and the family never reported him missing,” Moriarty said.
The lack of that missing person report had hampered the attempts to identify him. NamUs, however, matched him using a fingerprint database from the man’s military service.
http://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/crime/national-database-solves-case-of-man-found-in-niagara-river/article_0a0b4ab6-613b-11e7-adc3-db5352d6a2df.html
“He had been kind of a drifter and the family never reported him missing,” Moriarty said.
The lack of that missing person report had hampered the attempts to identify him. NamUs, however, matched him using a fingerprint database from the man’s military service.
http://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/crime/national-database-solves-case-of-man-found-in-niagara-river/article_0a0b4ab6-613b-11e7-adc3-db5352d6a2df.html
Montana "Cold Case" remains identified as an AF member
On June 8, 2017, investigators received a dental match on the unknown skull found in Montana in 1982, Airman First Class Rudy Victor Redd had been found. On June 14, 2017, the coroner produced a death certificate concluding Victor's cause and manner of death were undetermined, but ruled Victor died on or about June 15, 1974.
Effort underway to identify Marine buried in unmarked grave
By USMC Life | March 3rd, 2017
Woman Works To Identify Marine Who Died In Harlem Nearly 20 Years AgoNovember 11, 2016 7:18 PM
Filed Under: Magdalena Doris, U.S. Marine Corps, Veterans Day http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/11/11/unidentified-marine/ |
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Funding for cold cases, missing persons getting cut
OKLAHOMA - Anthropologists in our state said it will be a blow to solving cold cases in our state.
They’ve just learned a federal grant that funds DNA testing for missing persons will no longer be funded.
The grant is through the National Institute of Justice and is called Using DNA Technology To Identify the Missing.
It provides $4.7 million for the entire country and has been in existence since 2004.
Read more on KFOR.com's website
They’ve just learned a federal grant that funds DNA testing for missing persons will no longer be funded.
The grant is through the National Institute of Justice and is called Using DNA Technology To Identify the Missing.
It provides $4.7 million for the entire country and has been in existence since 2004.
Read more on KFOR.com's website
DNA Assistance:
As part of the NamUs system, the Center for Human Identification at the UNT Health Science Center coordinates with criminal justice agencies, the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to identify, collect and perform DNA analyses on unidentified remains and family reference samples free of charge. For DNA submission paperwork and instructions, visit the DNA Submission Page.
http://www.untfsu.com/namus.html
http://www.untfsu.com/namus.html
Harlem World Magazine
My sincere appreciation and respect goes out to Harlem World Magazine for very graciously including an article to assist in my efforts with a case in their area.
http://harlemworldmag.com/help-find-military-veteran-harlem-john-doe-warning/
http://harlemworldmag.com/help-find-military-veteran-harlem-john-doe-warning/
Anthony Urena’s mom seeks change in how NYPD handles missing persons By Sheila Anne Feeney January 28, 2016
Judith Lopez, 46, believes the NYPD’s initial refusal to acknowledge her son as a missing person after he disappeared last year is a civil rights issue: Why shouldn’t cops take the disappearance of a healthy adult, without cognitive or physical problems, as seriously as they might a missing child or elderly person?
Problems With Fingerprint Identification of Military Personnel
Problem:
Many of the unidentified persons on this website are considered to be military veterans by local law enforcement. So…..that makes me ponder, why are they still unidentified?
The military takes fingerprints, right? Yes, yes they do.
Don't be fooled though, it is not quite that simple. Local law enforcement cannot just call up the Army and have fingerprints checked without a name to go by. .....
Many of the unidentified persons on this website are considered to be military veterans by local law enforcement. So…..that makes me ponder, why are they still unidentified?
The military takes fingerprints, right? Yes, yes they do.
Don't be fooled though, it is not quite that simple. Local law enforcement cannot just call up the Army and have fingerprints checked without a name to go by. .....
Woman finally has proof her brother wasn't a deserter
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By Mari A. Schaefer, Inquirer Staff Writer
POSTED: November 18, 2012 Virginia Cleary never gave up. In the 43 years since her older brother, Marine Cpl. Robert Daniel Corriveau, a decorated Vietnam veteran, went missing from the Philadelphia Naval Hospital and was declared a deserter, she never stopped searching for him. She wrote countless letters, pestered senators and congressmen, traveled from her New Hampshire home to Philadelphia to search news archives, scoured faces in crowds, battled with military and state officials for records, and enlisted police and private detectives. |
Every roadblock she hit, she said, only strengthened her resolve and pushed her forward.
Finally, on May 31, Pennsylvania State Police were able to identify the remains of Corriveau, found stabbed to death in Chester County, and they are now seeking the public's assistance in solving the cold case.
"He was matched through my DNA," said Cleary, 58, of Conway, N.H.
On Nov 18, 1968, the same day the 20-year-old Marine from Lawrence, Mass., disappeared from the hospital, an unidentified man was found dead alongside the Pennsylvania Turnpike near the Downingtown interchange.
He was stabbed once though the heart and covered with a Navy pea coat. He carried no identification and became known as "Bulldog John Doe" after the distinctive tattoo on his upper right arm. He was buried at Longwood Cemetery in Kennett Square.
It would be days before the family learned Corriveau was missing. Cleary recalled how her father, a deputy sheriff, called the hospital to ask if her brother would be coming home for Thanksgiving, only to be told he was AWOL. That was a red flag.
"We were pretty sure he was not alive," Cleary said. "If he was, he'd be home."
Corriveau grew up in Lawrence and was known as "Bobby Dan" to his two younger brothers, Paul and Tom, and his little sister. He called her Gigi, and he loved to tease her.
Cleary remembers Corriveau as an excellent athlete who loved to play baseball and hockey. He attended Mount St. Charles Academy, a boys' boarding school in Rhode Island.
He enlisted in the Marines at age 17 and was sent to Vietnam, where he served two tours.
He fought with the Third Battalion, Fourth Marine Division, and was wounded in action three times. He was sent home with two Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts, and a chest full of ribbons.
When he came home, Cleary taught her brother the latest dance steps.
"He didn't want to be square," she said.
But Corriveau could not shake the flashbacks that tormented him sleeping and waking, Cleary said.
Corriveau was first treated at the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts. He was home on leave in October 1968, then traveled to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital to receive more psychiatric treatment.
Cleary said that on Nov. 18, the hospital staff reported Corriveau, who was in a locked ward, missing at morning roll call.
"All these years ... I never stopped searching," she said.
The persistence ultimately paid off, thanks in part to advances in DNA technology that have given new life to cold cases.
In July 2009, investigators from the state missing persons unit and the Chester County District Attorney's Office decided to exhume the body at Longwood buried under the name John Doe. Investigators had no idea that the body was that of Corriveau.
A DNA profile was obtained through bone samples and entered into the national missing-persons database.
Officials suspected the man had been in the military because of his tattoos, and brought in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service Cold Case Unit and the Marines.
On Dec. 5, 2011, Cleary received an "unexpected" call from NCIS asking about her brother's scars and tattoos. She was "pretty sure" they had found him.
NCIS would later visit Cleary to obtain her DNA and confirm the match.
Cleary wasn't done fighting. She insisted that the Marines change the deserter designation. And she had to go to court to get custody of her brother's body so he could be buried next to his father and deceased brother.
"After 43 years, we were shocked to find out what happened to him," she said of the slaying. "And on the other side, we were happy that we finally knew."
Anyone with information, including anyone who served with Corriveau or who knew him from the hospital, is asked to call 610-268-5158 or e-mail [email protected].
Contact Mari A. Schaefer at 610-892-9149, [email protected] or @MariSchaefer on Twitter.
After 37 years, Long Beach slaying victim ID'd as Marine
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Police use military records to track down the identity of a man found dead in a carport in 1974. The man, Oral Alfred Stuart Jr., was reported absent without authorization from Camp Pendleton 12 days after his body was found.
March 20, 2012|By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times Marine Oral Alfred Stuart Jr. was classified as a deserter when he failed to report back to Camp Pendleton. The Long Beach Police Department cold case detectives have identified him as the victim in a 1974 slaying. Marine Oral Alfred Stuart Jr. was classified as a deserter when he failed… For 37 years, the identity of a young man beaten to death in an carport in Long Beach remained a mystery. |
Not only did detectives not know who the assailant was, but they were never able to identify the victim, found naked and dead on Spring Street near the 605 Freeway on Nov. 10, 1974.
The case of John Doe No. 155 gathered dust on the shelves of the Long Beach Police Department, hidden among the dozens of unsolved mysteries. His death was ruled undetermined.
Last year, Long Beach cold-case detectives scoured the files for cases to reopen and stumbled upon the mystery man dumped at the Lakes apartment complex. They knew he had tattoos but had little else to go on.
"After looking at the evidence and physical description, it suggested he was a military man, so we began pursuing that," Lt. Lloyd Cox said.
Detectives contacted the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service Cold Case Homicide Unit at Camp Pendleton and provided the date of the death and the victim's physical description.
It turned out that a dozen days after the body of John Doe No. 155 was discovered, Marine Oral Alfred Stuart Jr., 18, was classified as a deserter when he failed to report back to Camp Pendleton.
The Des Moines native, who went by the name Buddy, had not been seen since leaving Camp Pendleton in early November 1974.
"The last time anyone saw him was when he left the base. He asked his family for some money for his leave, and that's the last they ever heard of him," Cox said.
Stuart's military history listed specific tattoos on his arms, which matched those described in John Doe No.155's autopsy. Believing their mysterious dead man was probably Stuart, investigators contacted the missing Marine's surviving brother in Phoenix and showed him the autopsy images of the tattoos and body.
Last week, they confirmed that it was Stuart, authorities said.
Carl Stuart, the Marine's older brother, said the family never believed Oral Stuart deserted. He was so proud that he had a Marine-related insignia tattooed on his arm.
"He was murdered," Stuart said. "I never believed he just disappeared. He loved his family and the Marines too much."
His brother had been in the Marine Corps only a few months and had completed basic training. He was on a short leave, then "we never heard from him again," Carl Stuart said.
"The Marine Corps, after he went missing, just put him down as a deserter, and the police in California back then kind of dropped the ball," Stuart said.
He said that when Long Beach police detectives showed him some autopsy-related images, they left no doubt that it was his brother.
The case of John Doe No. 155 gathered dust on the shelves of the Long Beach Police Department, hidden among the dozens of unsolved mysteries. His death was ruled undetermined.
Last year, Long Beach cold-case detectives scoured the files for cases to reopen and stumbled upon the mystery man dumped at the Lakes apartment complex. They knew he had tattoos but had little else to go on.
"After looking at the evidence and physical description, it suggested he was a military man, so we began pursuing that," Lt. Lloyd Cox said.
Detectives contacted the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service Cold Case Homicide Unit at Camp Pendleton and provided the date of the death and the victim's physical description.
It turned out that a dozen days after the body of John Doe No. 155 was discovered, Marine Oral Alfred Stuart Jr., 18, was classified as a deserter when he failed to report back to Camp Pendleton.
The Des Moines native, who went by the name Buddy, had not been seen since leaving Camp Pendleton in early November 1974.
"The last time anyone saw him was when he left the base. He asked his family for some money for his leave, and that's the last they ever heard of him," Cox said.
Stuart's military history listed specific tattoos on his arms, which matched those described in John Doe No.155's autopsy. Believing their mysterious dead man was probably Stuart, investigators contacted the missing Marine's surviving brother in Phoenix and showed him the autopsy images of the tattoos and body.
Last week, they confirmed that it was Stuart, authorities said.
Carl Stuart, the Marine's older brother, said the family never believed Oral Stuart deserted. He was so proud that he had a Marine-related insignia tattooed on his arm.
"He was murdered," Stuart said. "I never believed he just disappeared. He loved his family and the Marines too much."
His brother had been in the Marine Corps only a few months and had completed basic training. He was on a short leave, then "we never heard from him again," Carl Stuart said.
"The Marine Corps, after he went missing, just put him down as a deserter, and the police in California back then kind of dropped the ball," Stuart said.
He said that when Long Beach police detectives showed him some autopsy-related images, they left no doubt that it was his brother.