Unidentified Person Florida U.S. Paratroopers

9/13/2017

Paratrooper Doe Florida unidentified missing person 1984

21 to 30 year old White Male

Date found May 26, 1984 Fort Lauderdale Florida

The left arm has a tattoo reading "Born to Fly" and the right arm has tattoo reading "U.S. Paratroopers".

For more information on this case as well as a shareable poster for social media go to the Top Case page.

https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/1254

19 Comments

Candice

5/12/2018 12:51:10 pm

There is o e similar around that time said to be in Florida by the name of Terrance schram fits the description and has a contact info for department investigating if you look it up you can see it

Veteran Doe

5/23/2018 10:01:42 am

I took a look at that when I saw your Facebook comment. I wish we could see Terrance's tattoo better.

https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/1750

Richard David Cantrell link

1/23/2024 04:32:28 pm

Has anyone responded to you at all about this name Terrance Schram?

Kate

12/6/2018 11:20:24 am

His tattoo is indicative of US Army Airborne. Being a maroon beret, he was likely stationed at Fort Bragg or did Airborne school there. I submitted the case to Fort Bragg Criminal Investigative Division, he might match up to a missing/AWOL soldier.

Veteran Doe

12/6/2018 11:43:01 am

Thank you for looking into that!
I had submitted his case to the department listed here: http://fugitives.army.mil/deserters.aspx since they had some with good timing if he was active duty.
I never got a response though.
Hopefully your submission will shake a name out!

Richard David Cantrell link

2/3/2024 06:56:47 pm

Did you ever get a response? How can they not respond? When someone goes awol they should have some information about it. Idon't understand.

Lori Anne Young

12/13/2018 11:46:30 am

All of us get fingerprinted in the military...how have they not identified him with fingerprints....??

Veteran Doe

12/13/2018 01:48:42 pm

It's a great point you bring up but there are a couple issues with the fingerprints.
The older prints that are on print cards are not all in any centralized database. In this case the John Doe's prints are quite wrinkled from the water submersion so his would be difficult in a computer check and would likely require a manual comparison which is a monumental task without a name to compare them to.
Also, you have an expectation of privacy regarding your fingerprints. Law enforcement cannot randomly submit prints to be checked against all personnel. They need a name to do a comparison, except in the case of felons. Felony convictions cause the person to lose most of their rights to privacy and then those prints are included in the FBI's database.
I wrote a blog post about fingerprint issues a while back which was basically my summary of an excellent book on the topic.
It's crazy the amount of databases there are: local, state, federal, even banks have them, and each one has a different set of privacy rules.
A name to compare prints to is the key. Especially in this case where they would probably need to do the comparison manually.
Thank you for looking at his case!

Richard David Cantrell link

2/3/2024 07:02:40 pm

Looks like the tattoos would be somethng you could bank on. I mean tattoo parlors usually have their own specialty tattoos and ought to have a name that they were sold to. I would imagine all of those tattoos were sold and done at the same time. and probably took a long time to finish of course this was in 1884 so the problem of time is a problem but i would check to see what tattoo parlors were open in Fort Lauderdale in 1984 and sold these tattoos!

DL Miller

2/12/2021 01:42:58 pm

Hi, I called Ft Lauderdale PD to request the case file to research this unknown and the case file you have listed appears to be incorrect. If you have the file or another case # please email me, thanks.

Veteran Doe

2/12/2021 02:08:38 pm

The NamUs case is #UP1254
FLPD info says Agency Case Number
84-73082
Brower County ME says ME/C Case Number
1984-0751

Which one did you give them? FLPD may have closed theirs out since it's an ME case.

DL Miller

2/12/2021 02:13:02 pm

I used the 84-73082 and the clerk at FLPD actually logged on to the archival system but could not fund anything under that number. I've left a message with the ME office.

KLM link

5/29/2023 06:39:28 pm

Could he be Gregory John Carter?

Richard David Cantrell link

1/23/2024 04:21:58 pm

Has anyone responded to your question? and where did you get that name?

Richard David Cantrell link

2/3/2024 06:50:44 pm

I looked up Gregory John Carter and there is no resemblance at all. Mr Carter weighed 180lbs whereas the Paratrooper weighed 162. Mr Carter was 6 ft whereas the paratrooper was 5 ft 6". Carter was last seen in Colorado and the paratrooper was found in Florida Carter had long hair and a beard when he disappeared and the paratrooper had short hair and clean shaven

Claire

7/10/2023 07:20:47 pm

Just listened to you on Podcast, The Doe Identity Network. It was mentioned that you couldn't find a link between the US Military and a pegasus symbol. Well, not US but the UK Paratroopers use a pegasis symbol. Its not the same as the tattoo, but wondered if he had trained with the UK paras at some point? Perhaps a bit tenuous, but I immediately made the link to rhe Paras. As am aside, I don't know if it is the same in the US but the Paras are a feeder regiment for special forces too.

I hope this is not a red Herring. Best wishes.

Richard David Cantrell link

2/3/2024 07:07:33 pm

This guy doesn't look old enough to be trained by the UK or Special Forces before he drowned. Speial forces soldiers are trained to be good swimmers i would think. I wonder if any boats were sunk on that day in Fl

Richard David Cantrell link

2/12/2024 04:22:17 am

It's hard for me to believe that in all these years from 1984 to 2024 no one has come forward with any names of persons that went missing. Some how somebody knows something. It makes me think it was nefarius. Someone knows something but is going to take it to the grave. We probably will never know what happened. It's a tragedy but tragedies happen.

Shawn

6/26/2024 12:24:39 pm

Isn't there a way to get a list of Military Personnel who went AWOL/ Missing during the 1972-1984 years? Even if it is a long list it would be a way to start and cross reference

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Unidentified Persons