here are some quotes from the article Ms Suzanne had posted at the beginning of the thread.. sadly I thought it would have the photo of the boy and the girl.. I wonder where the photo and why nobody ever published it. someone could of recognized them or their clothing.. I also wonder if it was ever printed in and of the South Carolina papers. And any photos of his bag or clothing that again someone could of recognized.
anyway here is some of the article from the link
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20051211/NEWS/512110375
The boy -- he looked to be around 14 or 15 years old -- had been thumbing his way across central Alabama.
He hadnt said much to the drivers who gave him a lift. Not one of them knew his name or where he was from.
There was a hint. Though it was late March and the heat of an Alabama summer was just around the corner, the boy wore really heavy clothes, thick clothes, Oakley remembers.
The last person to give him a ride was James White, a 36-year-old Cottondale man who stopped to pick up the boy on Alabama Highway 25 north of Centreville.
Not far up the road, White made a left on Bibb County 26, which leads to River Bend Bridge
He was cutting through the country going to Cottondale, Oakley says. Evidently the boy didnt care where he was going. He just got in the car and took off.
It was a little after 6 p.m. Twilight was settling over the Cahaba basin.
River Bend Bridge, a wooden structure, crossed the Cahaba at the foot of a long hill. Old and rickety, it was an accident waiting to happen.
In the gathering darkness, White missed a curve and caromed into a guardrail. Smashing through the wooden beams, his car plummeted 250 feet down the rocky river gorge.
As water poured in, White busted out the drivers window and swam for shore. There was no sign of the hitchhiker.
The authorities summoned a trio of divers from Montgomery to recover the body of the hitchhiker. They found him still in the front seat of the car, under 20 feet of water.
It was around 9 p.m. when they brought the body out of the Cahaba.
Lee, the funeral home owner, also was the county coroner. He determined that the boy had broken his neck. His left hand was broken in two places as well; perhaps he had tried to cushion himself from the shock of the collision.
But who was he?
He had absolutely no identification, Oakley says. He didnt even carry a wallet. Nobody had ever seen him around Centreville, either.
Some long-sleeve shirts and pants made of heavy fabric were stuffed into his knapsack. People took that as a sign that he was from somewhere up north.
Also, the dead boy didnt exactly fit the profile of an activist. The only thing about him that suggested a lack of conventionality was a tattoo on his left arm. This was an era when most nice youngsters didnt get tattoos.
RY in Love it read. Or maybe R+Y in Love. The tattoo was crude and hard to read.
The only other clue was a photo in his personal belongings that showed the boy with a girl. The images were so small that you couldnt tell much about either of them.
Supposedly the boy told someone whod picked him up that his mother and father had separated and he faced the choice of joining the Navy or entering an orphanage. He didnt want to do either, so he hit the road.
That didnt make a lot of sense. For one thing, the boy looked too young to go into the military.
Still, it seemed possible that he came from what was euphemistically called a broken home. Where that home may have been remained an open question.
Do they still have the picture of him and a girl with him. They can enhance that picture now.I feel if they put that picture out with his picture now. Someone might remember him.It could be his girl friend,sister or someone close to him. The article says The only other clue was a photo in his personal belongings that showed the boy with a girl. The images were so small that you couldnt tell much about either of them.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20051211/NEWS/512110375