CT CT - New Haven, West River 20yds from Chapel St Bridge, WhtMale 20-50, UP13994, Rt & Lt legs w/ light brown hair, Feb'86

[rats]

NamUs: The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Case #: NH-86-559
Date found: February 28, 1986
Location: Edgewood Park, 52 Grand Avenue, New Haven, CT (New Haven Co.)
Estimated age: 20-50
Race: White
Sex: Male
Body Hair: Light brown
Body conditions: Not recognizable - partial remains with soft tissues
Probable year of death: 1986 to 1986
Estimated postmortem interval: 2 days

Circumstances:

Right and left legs found in water of West River 20 yards down stream from Chapel Street Bridge in New Haven

DNA: Sample submitted - tests complete

My question is: Where is the rest of the body, how can you only find 2 legs? Also, were feet included?

 

[madamx]

The Lost & The Found

Phillip Fiammetta

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

Date last seen Jan. 20, 1986
Age last seen 26 years old
Sex Male
Race White
Ethnicity Unsure
Nickname/Alias
Circumstances: missing under suspicious circumstances
Location

City last seen North Babylon
County last seen Suffolk
State last seen New York

 

[rats]

missing under suspicious circumstances

That would DEFINITELY make sense if it was just legs in the river... Wonder how suspicious it is though. Good find, madamx!

 

[Melt71]

West River is only 13mi long and is dammed in several places according to Wiki, so unlikely these remains came from far away.

In additional to Phillip Fiammetta mentioned above, there is also:

Isidor Greenwald 34yo has red/auburn hair so possible leg hair would be light brown. Missing from NY since 10 Feb and no other details listed in his Namus case www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/71190?nav

Although the PMI is listed as 2 days given it was winter I wonder if these were remains of someone who was visiting the area and died over Christmas/New Year and perhaps the cold water may have delayed decomp?

 

[BrownBear]

Updated NamUs link
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

 

[YaYa_521]

No exclusions.

 

[citizen_sleuth]

"Chief Says Police Have No Leads," Hartford Courant, 15 March 1986, D3.

Forensic technicians this week said the blood is Type O-positive, which is a common type.

Theodore A. Driscoll, "Despite Clues, Odd New Haven Case Still Unsolved," Hartford Courant, 3 April 1986, B1, B2.
[part 1] [part 2]


On Feb. 28, a New Haven couple made a grisly find in the chilled waters of the West River. A pair of legs was found floating in the shallow water near the banks.

[...]

The man was white, between 20 and 30 years old, 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet tall and about 170 pounds. He wore a size 10 1/2 shoe and his legs were surgically removed after he had died. And there was a twist in what already is a bizarre case: the bottoms of his feet -- which have the same potential for identification as fingerprints -- were scraped smooth.

[...]

The absence of embalming fluid makes the possibility the body came from an undertaker less likely, but that possibility, put to Dr. Henry Lee, director of the state police forensic lab, prompted him to recall a case he investigated three years ago in another state.

[...]

The legs found in the West River showed no evidence of disease in the body they came from, Maher said. "The legs were in excellent condition, except for the footpads." Investigators do not know how long they were in the water, which was cold enough to preserve them, Maher said. "Some think they were there about a week."

 

[citizen_sleuth]

I really can’t think of any explanation other than foul play. Since the legs weren’t embalmed, they likely didn’t come from a funeral home, and since the footpads were scraped off presumably to prevent ID, I doubt they came from a medical/dental school cadaver. I wonder if DNA is available — if so, they could see if it matches with other partial remains found in the area.

 

[cheemsg]

@othram ?

 

[othram]

@othram ?

We will take a look!

 

[dotr]

Who is New Haven County John Doe (1986)?

Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and Othram Partner to Identify 1986 John Doe

dnasolves.com

n February 1986, the legs of an unidentified individual were found in the West River in New Haven, Connecticut. The legs were discovered twenty yards downstream from the Chapel Street Bridge. No other remains were found. It was determined that the remains were that of a White male between the ages of twenty and fifty years. Hair on the man’s legs was described as being light brown in color. It was estimated that two days had elapsed between the man’s death and the discovery of his remains.

With limited information available, the man’s identity remained a mystery and the case went cold despite investigators’ attempts to identify him. The man became known as New Haven County John Doe (1986). In 2015, details of the case were entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) as #UP13994.

''In 2023, as part of an ongoing collaboration aimed at solving the backlog of cold cases in Connecticut, the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner partnered with Othram in The Woodlands, Texas. Othram will use Forensic-Grade Genomic Sequencing® to build a comprehensive DNA profile to generate new investigative leads for the case.''