Identified! AL - Bibb Co, WhtMal UP13483, 14-17, MVA/hitchhiker, tattoo: RY + LOVE Mar'61 - Daniel Armantrout

[rats]

Has anyone reached out to this John Doe's agency? I hope they know about DDP, DDP is so inundated with cases that they don't really reach out themselves anymore I don't think.

And based on the age range and circumstances I imagine DDP would take on his case.

Is there an email listed online anywhere? Might be the easiest way of contacting them.

ETA:

I just reached out to his agency via their Facebook page as I couldn't find an email for them. Hopefully this goes somewhere!

This was posted as I posted. Here's hoping!

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I just reached out to his agency via their Facebook page as I couldn't find an email for them. Hopefully this goes somewhere!

EDIT: Whoever runs the page has 'seen' my message. Fingers crossed.

Well done

Given that they exhumed him for DNA only a year or so ago, they are obviously committed to identifying him.

 

[leilarose68]

I don't know why but this case touches me more than most... he was a runaway and a young boy in love. The 'remember the times we spent together' is so simple and sweet. He touches my heart.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I don't know why but this case touches me more than most... he was a runaway and a young boy in love. The 'remember the times we spent together' is so simple and sweet.

I agree. Many other old cases here have their staunch supporters but this lad seems to be virtually forgotten. He's been dead almost 60 years but maybe there is still someone out there wondering what happened to him.

 

[madamx]

I wish they pub

I agree. Many other old cases here have their staunch supporters but this lad seems to be virtually forgotten. He's been dead almost 60 years but maybe there is still someone out there wondering what happened to him.

i whim they published the photo they found on him. I wonder if the mystery girl is still around.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I wish they pub

i whim they published the photo they found on him. I wonder if the mystery girl is still around.

I'm not sure it would help. I've not seen the photo but I think it was described as small or indistinct so the girl involved might not recognise him or indeed herself.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

If the age estimate was correct, he would have been in his early 70s now. It's very unlikely the girl was any older so the chances of her being still alive are pretty good unless something intervened such that she died in the meantime. Even if she did die, she might well have spoken to her own children about the childhood sweetheart that left in 1961 and whom she never heard from again.

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

One thing I just noticed was why does his case file list the items with him and leaves out the clothing he was wearing? Unless I missed something.

 

[leilarose68]

So I ended up calling the sheriff's office so I could get the sheriff's email lol. Wasn't confident that my facebook message to the Bibb County page would get to him... hopefully he will reach out to DDP at some point!

 

[leilarose68]

Well done

Given that they exhumed him for DNA only a year or so ago, they are obviously committed to identifying him.

I hope so but apparently NCMEC funded the exhumation, so who knows if they were pushed into doing it

 

[carbuff]

For most law enforcement agencies, there's a major gap between wanting to do something to solve a case and having the money to make it happen.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

For most law enforcement agencies, there's a major gap between wanting to do something to solve a case and having the money to make it happen.

True, but at least DDP have the Doe Fund Me programme.

 

[carbuff]

True, but at least DDP have the Doe Fund Me programme.

Yeah, though my point was just that it might have been LE pushing NCMEC for the funding, not the other way around.

 

[SpeckledCactys]

Bet you one of the reasons that he hasn’t been ID’d is because of the weird looking NCMEC reconstruction. The reconstruction shows his face pulling in, like he had some sort of facial deformity - the mortuary photograph looks nothing like the reconstruction.
However the morgue photo was taken from an upwards angle, which may have influenced the artist.
I just think we need an updated reconstruction of our boy.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Would he have been too young for the merchant marine? Since teenagers tended to leave school much earlier in those days it's possible he could have been taken on as a cabin boy on a freighter to learn the trade. Since we also know he was carrying cigarettes with a SC tax stamp, perhaps he was from the SC coastal. Maybe his father also had connections in the merchant marine and told him he would no longer be responsible for him but he could get him a job with X on the Y.

On the Navy question, I see the autopsy report suggests he might have walked with a limp. If he did, would that have disqualified him from serving in either the US Navy or the merchant marine?

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I'm going to try and track down this James White -- the man who gave him a ride - he has possibly long ago passed away.

Maybe you're not around any more, but if you are did anything come of this?

Even if James White is dead he may have children that he spoke to about the incident.

 

[carbuff]

He resembles James Dean...

 

[leilarose68]

Sadly his agency never responded to my email. I hope they will consider DDP! I made it clear that DDP will crowdfund the sequencing costs if necessary.

 

[SpeckledCactys]

amateur reconstruction using the morgue photographs

 

[carbuff]

That's a rather nice job.