jackfriess
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- Jul 26, 2013
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Yes, I spent a bunch of time with the high school yearbooks from 1991 - 1994 from Beloit and Janesville. It's pretty tough though, without an actual photo. AND, considering the discussion above of no solid evidentiary connection between River Guy and JCD, using River Guy's sketch seems like chasing the wrong person. That leaves only the forensic evidence, that which we know to be absolutely true about JCD, that we can use: long (collar-length), straight, brown hair. Clothing too, maybe: black T-shirt, city-style camo pants, black Nike Air Bound basketball shoes, black Aquatech watch. [What might seem like contradiction, in the end, it may not matter in if JCD and River Guy are different people. Because: find River Guy; and we might find JCD. Right??]
From his clothes (black Venom T-shirt, camo pants) and his goat's head pendant, we can deduce a non-traditional, maybe rebellious, young man. That is, when he was 17-20. If JCD was 20 when he died in these clothes, does it mean that he was always rebellious? When he was a sophomore or junior, say, did he have long hair, or shorter, or maybe even short, hair? Did he have those shoes, bought as early as 1993, because he actually played organized basketball and was on the basketball team? What kind of student are we actually looking for?
So, with all these questions and variables, it became what seemed at the time, an arduous and fruitless endeavor.
HOWEVER, this does not mean that looking in high school yearbooks isn't still a good idea. It may be. But, do you know how many high schools there are in Wisconsin alone? I do. There are 193 private and 615 public high schools in Wisconsin--that's over 800 (see at least I can add!). How many of those have yearbooks online? Maybe 50%. How many have yearbooks online from 1991-1994? Maybe 10%. And this is just Wisconsin. What about Minnesota and Michigan? (Remember the SIA results indicating JCD could have grown up in Wis, Minn or Mich?) So, are you beginning to see the challenges involved in, and the magnitude of, such a search?
NOW, I'm NOT saying a search like this isn't a good idea and shouldn't be done. But, it would take manpower, and coordination, to do it right and tackle this elephant. Manpower? Well, there are people like you, if you want to get involved in a huge, long term, but potentially hugely beneficial project. There are also librarians in the state who are generally extremely helpful.
So, I do have some ideas on how to work a search of yearbooks, if anyone is interested. For me, this is one area where I'm putting my search efforts and time these days:
It is very possible, even though we have here a non-traditional guy, that, when/if he wasn't spending his time listening to mind-draining, heavy metal music, back when he possibly played basketball and had short hair, that he either got, or applied for, a driver's license. So, with my partner at the RCSO, we are requesting and will soon receive a dump of all Wis. DMV driver's license applicants or holders between 1991 and 1994 who did not renew their license after December, 1994. We understand there are about 1,500 hits or names in this file. And these are individuals already prescreened based on race, sex, height, weight, hair color, etc. I and detective Yoerger will be spending a ton of time doing proof-of-life searches on all these individuals. Since there are, and can be, because of DMV's restrictions, only two of us working this list, it will take months to do the work to look for what could be only a handful of individuals who are neither confirmed to be alive nor who are confirmed to have died after December, 1994. Then with a name, DOB, and zip code, we can then have an actual person to look for in that yearbook we were talking about above, and that we can try to find out what happened to!
So, if anyone would like to join a "team" of online searchers looking through Wisconsin (and then Minn and Mich) yearbooks for JCD, please email me. <friess@rockcountycoroner.us> Maybe we can get something going with this?? Hey, I can't be doing ALL the work here.
Later....
Jack
