WA - Unidentified Male: "Lyle Stevik", Grays Harbor, 17 Sept 2001 - #4

[carbuff]

The new rendition from Carl DEFINITELY makes Lyle look older, which in turn, bring more possibilities for matches IMO


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He's got such a careworn look. Poor guy. I agree he looks older.

 

[Roselvr]

Thanks. His face wasn't in that bad of shape to start with.

I had to lower his eyebrows and remove the big wrinkle from his forehead. The raised eyebrows and wrinkled forehead are common postmortem effects, becuse the muscles between the eyes and eyebrows relax after death.

Of course, I had to open his eyes a little, and fix his lips a little, and straighten out his hairstyle (with a little help from Pierce Brosnan), remove the lividity from his skin, and give him a plaid shirt taken from a photo of a guy that I found on the web.

But I think this is pretty much what he looked like. He looks much less "exotic" with the postmortem effects taken out.

You did great! Hopefully Lyle is another step closer to being identified! Thank you for doing it

 

[carbuff]

Okay, I am not sure how to go about researching this.

I was reading back through the older posts in Lyle's forum, where it says the address he gave in Idaho belongs to a chain motel. And I got to wondering -- how long had the motel been there? Is it possible he lived there before the motel went in?

 

[astridxx]

Property or land records I think. Possibly getting in touch with the GM of the hotel at the location of the address he provided.


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[Snoopster]

Okay, I am not sure how to go about researching this.

I was reading back through the older posts in Lyle's forum, where it says the address he gave in Idaho belongs to a chain motel. And I got to wondering -- how long had the motel been there? Is it possible he lived there before the motel went in?

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Another idea....old aerial photographs, which could lead to information about change in use?? Some of these aerial photographers base their services on changes over time and could possibly pinpoint a specific year of change.

 

[Ambercat]

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Another idea....old aerial photographs, which could lead to information about change in use?? Some of these aerial photographers base their services on changes over time and could possibly pinpoint a specific year of change.

http://historicaerials.com/ is a pretty good website for old aerial photos, except it doesn't look like they have photos from Idaho prior to 2000. Another way to search would be by the address, to search for it in old newspapers in the area and things of that nature.

I just noticed that "Lyle" doesn't appear to have given a zip code for the Meridian, ID address, which makes me unconvinced that he was actually associated with the address (IMO).



This is probably going to sound really weird, but looking at the address, I can't help but wonder if whatever it was that drove him to suicide occurred on 9/1/01 (the numbers in the address backwards).

 

[ezuke]

He must've been there at some point because south progress ave is pretty random address to make up, and accurately too! Fwiw, there is a best western at that address.
Think he had a match book on him?

edit: the best western was built in 1995, so it's possible he stayed there/near there. http://www.cvent.com/rfp/meridian-h...n/venue-15321d57ed7447558075efed71ec32db.aspx
An aside: how did he rent hotel rooms without a credit card?!
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[dotr]

http://historicaerials.com/ is a pretty good website for old aerial photos, except it doesn't look like they have photos from Idaho prior to 2000. Another way to search would be by the address, to search for it in old newspapers in the area and things of that nature.

I just noticed that "Lyle" doesn't appear to have given a zip code for the Meridian, ID address, which makes me unconvinced that he was actually associated with the address (IMO).

View attachment 57417

This is probably going to sound really weird, but looking at the address, I can't help but wonder if whatever it was that drove him to suicide occurred on 9/1/01 (the numbers in the address backwards).

Rbbm, Great catch on the numbers!
Do the letters in the words written in cursive, appear to be open or closed?
The reason I ask, is because at one time and perhaps still in effect, students in Catholic schools were generally taught to close their letters, and Protestants were taught to keep them open. Just a very small detail that might suggest where Lyle was raised. imo.

 

[carbuff]

What? That's different Where did that happen? Where I was, everybody (Catholic, public, Dutch Reformed) learned Palmer Method.

 

[rosesfromangels]

A guy this distinctive looking; its hard to understand why he hasnt been identified! He looks soooo French Canadian to me

 

[dotr]

What? That's different Where did that happen? Where I was, everybody (Catholic, public, Dutch Reformed) learned Palmer Method.

Quebec, not sure about other provinces, also should have noted that typically, Greek Orthodox and Jewish kids went to Protestant school boards, now generally called Public schools. ( Sigh, been years and years since elementary school for me, so might not apply to Lyle)

jmo, until supportive link found, but am sure of this, fwiw.

 

[outofthedark]

I think I found Lyle's grave:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/f...rel=in&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=133793097&df=90

 

[annemc2]

Rbbm, Great catch on the numbers!
Do the letters in the words written in cursive, appear to be open or closed?
The reason I ask, is because at one time and perhaps still in effect, students in Catholic schools were generally taught to close their letters, and Protestants were taught to keep them open. Just a very small detail that might suggest where Lyle was raised. imo.

That is super interesting! I always pictured the cursive handwriting as being the female clerk's. It looks like Lyle was filling in the blanks and using a small, all-caps style. When the clerk noticed that Lyle wrote only the state, she said "What town in Idaho?" and wrote it next to his "ID."


The Idaho abbreviation is interesting in itself - even though it's one of the more intuitive ones (as opposed to AK - Alaska) I'd think that if he was unsure that he'd just write out the whole state name. This makes me think he might be American or very well-travelled in the US. If I was using a "fake" Canadian address I'd be unsure how to abbreviate the province and would just spell the whole thing out so I didn't look stupid.

Another observation (that's pretty useless but interesting in regards to Lyle's state of mind) is that he didn't write the city himself. I would think that most of us, if presented with a forum asking for our name and address, would automatically fill in the details. This was likely not an address that he wrote often (if ever). Ambercat noticed that he left the zip code off entirely. Either because he didn't know it or because he wasn't asked to provide it. It wasn't reflexive for him to write that address.

Usually as a person's mental illness worsens, his thinking becomes more concrete. This is why a psychiatrist will ask someone to interpret sayings like "a rolling stone gathers no moss" or "a stitch in time saves nine." Most of us can come up with the more abstract concepts of these, but someone who is severely mentally ill will often describe them in literal terms (e.g. "a rock that is rolling doesn't grow moss on it"). Maybe Lyle, in the depths of major depressive disorder, was only able to answer the questions that were asked of him (which didn't include his zip code).

 

[carbuff]

Quebec, not sure about other provinces, also should have noted that typically, Greek Orthodox and Jewish kids went to Protestant school boards, now generally called Public schools. ( Sigh, been years and years since elementary school for me, so might not apply to Lyle)

jmo, until supportive link found, but am sure of this, fwiw.

So if he's French-Canadian, it could be relevant. Though I think I agree with annemc that I thought the cursive was probably the clerk's writing, not Lyle's.

 

[outofthedark]

Another observation (that's pretty useless but interesting in regards to Lyle's state of mind) is that he didn't write the city himself. I would think that most of us, if presented with a forum asking for our name and address, would automatically fill in the details. This was likely not an address that he wrote often (if ever). Ambercat noticed that he left the zip code off entirely. Either because he didn't know it or because he wasn't asked to provide it. It wasn't reflexive for him to write that address.

Usually as a person's mental illness worsens, his thinking becomes more concrete. This is why a psychiatrist will ask someone to interpret sayings like "a rolling stone gathers no moss" or "a stitch in time saves nine." Most of us can come up with the more abstract concepts of these, but someone who is severely mentally ill will often describe them in literal terms (e.g. "a rock that is rolling doesn't grow moss on it"). Maybe Lyle, in the depths of major depressive disorder, was only able to answer the questions that were asked of him (which didn't include his zip code).

I think CCM said that the clerk described Lyle as being "spaced" when she was talking to him [Lyle]. I think she wrote "Meridan, ID".

 

[rosesfromangels]

Was he "spaced", or was he simply very ill?

 

[carbuff]

Was he "spaced", or was he simply very ill?

Could have been both if he was taking any medication.

 

[outofthedark]

Was he "spaced", or was he simply very ill?

"Spaced"

She said that he did talk to her a bit, so we know that he was still coherent.

 

[Snoopster]

Quebec, not sure about other provinces, also should have noted that typically, Greek Orthodox and Jewish kids went to Protestant school boards, now generally called Public schools. ( Sigh, been years and years since elementary school for me, so might not apply to Lyle)

jmo, until supportive link found, but am sure of this, fwiw.

I'm not sure what you mean by open cursive and closed cursive, dotr. I went to an English-speaking public school in Quebec as a young child. I guess the school was "Protestant" by nature, with a very significant Jewish minority. I'm not sure that my writing would be much different than Lyle's so I wouldn't presume that he went to Catholic school.

In any case, he doesn't look Quebecois to me at all. Most Quebecois have narrow faces. His face seems more Slavic or aboriginal to me.

 

[dotr]

I'm not sure what you mean by open cursive and closed cursive, dotr. I went to an English-speaking public school in Quebec as a young child. I guess the school was "Protestant" by nature, with a very significant Jewish minority. I'm not sure that my writing would be much different than Lyle's so I wouldn't presume that he went to Catholic school.

In any case, he doesn't look Quebecois to me at all. Most Quebecois have narrow faces. His face seems more Slavic or aboriginal to me.

It was another poster who thought Lyle really looked French Canadian and it seems that the hotel clerk had filled in the form, so my comments about letter formation are a moot point.
What I meant about open/closed letters, is that for example, the letter p , the 'o" part of it, would remain slightly open, so one does not have to lift the pen to form the next letter in a word. harder to describe than I thought!

Like this, maybe just closed a little bit more..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHTcyt5I3KA