General Information
Date of Discovery - 07/18/1971
Location of Discovery – Goldsboro, Wayne County, North Carolina
Estimated Date of Death – 1971
State of Remains - Not recognizable - Traumatic injuries
Cause of Death - Homicide - Beating/Burning
Physical Description
Estimated Age – 40 - 60 (Newspaper reports indicate in 40's)
Race - White / Caucasian
Gender - Male
Height - 5'11 (Newspaper reports indicate 6'0)
Weight – 200 (Newspaper reports indicate 175 to 200 pounds)
Hair Color - Unknown
Eye Color - Unknown or Missing
Distinguishing Marks / Features – No natural teeth present.
Clothing and Accessories
Clothing - A pair of blue pants, and a pair of socks (remainder of clothing burnt beyond recognition).
Jewelry - A Jaeger-LeCoultre gold watch, with the repair dates 8-65 and 10-21-70 engraved on the back by a jeweller with the initial 'F'.
Additional Personal Items – A quilt or blanket (undetermined due to fire damage).
Circumstances of Discovery
The body of the man was discovered in the early hours of morning after an anonymous call placed to the Wayne County Sheriff's Department indicated that there was something burning in the middle of an unpaved, dead-end road located adjacent to North Carolina Highway 581. This site is located three miles west of Goldsboro, in an area known as Road No. 1240. Upon arriving at the scene and extinguishing the fire, authorities found the body lying in a supine position; it had been placed on a quilt with its arms outstretched, and doused with gasoline before being set alight. No shoes, wallet or other forms of identification were found with the body.
Forensic examination at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill revealed that the man had been burnt beyond recognition, with only his feet and socks remaining intact. The cause of death was unclear - the man was severely beaten, and was most likely unconscious at the time he was set alight as his skull had been 'crushed like an eggshell'. However, an autopsy revealed that his lungs showed signs of smoke inhalation. The pavement around where the body was located had also been swept clean of any footprints and tire tracks, which investigators believed indicated that a struggle may have taken place nearby.
The man did not have any natural teeth which hindered identification through dental records, but investigators were able to obtain copies of the man's fingerprints for comparison (the NamUs file states that the postmortem prints were unidentifiable because of the fire, but this is refuted in several newspaper reports). After no matches were located in the records of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the fingerprints were sent to the FBI in Washington for nation-wide comparison with other missing persons. This did not produce any additional leads, and despite continued public appeals for help, including numerous attempts to find the jeweller who conducted the repairs on the man's distinctive watch, the case remains unsolved.
Hickory Daily Record - July 19, 1971
The News and Observer - July 20, 1971
The Charlotte Observer - July 20, 1971
Date of Discovery - 07/18/1971
Location of Discovery – Goldsboro, Wayne County, North Carolina
Estimated Date of Death – 1971
State of Remains - Not recognizable - Traumatic injuries
Cause of Death - Homicide - Beating/Burning
Physical Description
Estimated Age – 40 - 60 (Newspaper reports indicate in 40's)
Race - White / Caucasian
Gender - Male
Height - 5'11 (Newspaper reports indicate 6'0)
Weight – 200 (Newspaper reports indicate 175 to 200 pounds)
Hair Color - Unknown
Eye Color - Unknown or Missing
Distinguishing Marks / Features – No natural teeth present.
Clothing and Accessories
Clothing - A pair of blue pants, and a pair of socks (remainder of clothing burnt beyond recognition).
Jewelry - A Jaeger-LeCoultre gold watch, with the repair dates 8-65 and 10-21-70 engraved on the back by a jeweller with the initial 'F'.
Additional Personal Items – A quilt or blanket (undetermined due to fire damage).
Circumstances of Discovery
The body of the man was discovered in the early hours of morning after an anonymous call placed to the Wayne County Sheriff's Department indicated that there was something burning in the middle of an unpaved, dead-end road located adjacent to North Carolina Highway 581. This site is located three miles west of Goldsboro, in an area known as Road No. 1240. Upon arriving at the scene and extinguishing the fire, authorities found the body lying in a supine position; it had been placed on a quilt with its arms outstretched, and doused with gasoline before being set alight. No shoes, wallet or other forms of identification were found with the body.
Forensic examination at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill revealed that the man had been burnt beyond recognition, with only his feet and socks remaining intact. The cause of death was unclear - the man was severely beaten, and was most likely unconscious at the time he was set alight as his skull had been 'crushed like an eggshell'. However, an autopsy revealed that his lungs showed signs of smoke inhalation. The pavement around where the body was located had also been swept clean of any footprints and tire tracks, which investigators believed indicated that a struggle may have taken place nearby.
The man did not have any natural teeth which hindered identification through dental records, but investigators were able to obtain copies of the man's fingerprints for comparison (the NamUs file states that the postmortem prints were unidentifiable because of the fire, but this is refuted in several newspaper reports). After no matches were located in the records of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the fingerprints were sent to the FBI in Washington for nation-wide comparison with other missing persons. This did not produce any additional leads, and despite continued public appeals for help, including numerous attempts to find the jeweller who conducted the repairs on the man's distinctive watch, the case remains unsolved.
Hickory Daily Record - July 19, 1971
The News and Observer - July 20, 1971
The Charlotte Observer - July 20, 1971
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.
www.namus.gov