Match! CO - Pagosa Springs, WhtMale 1282UMCO, 20-28, Oct'82 *Stewart Simmons*

[sayd]

You all are so humble. This needs to be plastered all over the main Websleuths page. I am very, very impressed.

 

[Snoods]

Huge article - Victim of 1982 homicide identified - Nearly 32 years after his murder, the male victim of a 1982 double homicide in Archuleta County was identified last week.
That male, who was previously dubbed Richard Miller, was positively identified Feb. 19 as Stewart Eric Simmons, 20 years old at the time of his disappearance....

...In July 2013, Barter, with the help of the New Mexico FBI, exhumed John Doe’s body from an Albuquerque cemetery with hopes of finding additional DNA to help identify the victim, though the DNA proved to not be needed thanks to the availability of dental records for Simmons...

...The lead into John Doe’s possibly being Simmons came to Barter through e-mail from an amateur sleuth, Barter explained.

The unidentified sleuth, Barter said, is part of a group of amateur sleuths who pore over websites filled with missing persons and cold cases, such as The Doe Network and NamUs (National Unidentified and Missing Persons System).

“I’ve spent literally hours and hours and hours in those databases,” Barter said, adding he believed the tip from the sleuth because other investigative work led him to believe the victim was in the Navy in California.

“I was jumping up and down, I know this is him, I know this is him,” Barter said. “I was just positive it was him.”....

Fantastic for the family to finally get their son home.

BBM Hmmm, curious about who the unidentified sleuth is!

 

[Migmuu]

I'm always interesting in comparing the stats of a missing person to the stats given for their body when they were still unidentified. Here's the comparison between Simmons and 1282UMCO:

Age: 20 for Simmons, 20 - 28 for UID
Race: White for both men
Height: 5'9 for Simmons, 5'10 - 5'11 for UID
Hair color: Light brown to blond for Simmons, brownish-blond for UID
Timing: Simmons disappeared on June 19th, UID is estimated to have died in late September.
Distance: San Diego, CA is 869 miles from Archuleta, CO.

The only differences in stats between Simmons and the UID were the beard (I guess Simmons grew one in the 5 months he was missing), and there's no mention of a healed clavicle fracture on Simmons' profile. The clothing is negligible because 5 months had passed between the disappearance and the UID's discovery.
No weight estimate or eye color were given for the UID because of decomposition.

I wonder what he was doing in those 5 months. And why he was in Colorado when he had ties to several other states.

I hope we get to learn those things, and that his killer is found and (if he's still alive) is brought to justice.

 

[Roselvr]

I'm always interesting in comparing the stats of a missing person to the stats given for their body when they were still unidentified. Here's the comparison between Simmons and 1282UMCO:

Age: 20 for Simmons, 20 - 28 for UID
Race: White for both men
Height: 5'9 for Simmons, 5'10 - 5'11 for UID
Hair color: Light brown to blond for Simmons, brownish-blond for UID
Timing: Simmons disappeared on June 19th, UID is estimated to have died in late September.
Distance: San Diego, CA is 869 miles from Archuleta, CO.

The only differences in stats between Simmons and the UID were the beard (I guess Simmons grew one in the 5 months he was missing), and there's no mention of a healed clavicle fracture on Simmons' profile. The clothing is negligible because 5 months had passed between the disappearance and the UID's discovery.
No weight estimate or eye color were given for the UID because of decomposition.

I wonder what he was doing in those 5 months. And why he was in Colorado when he had ties to several other states.

I hope we get to learn those things, and that his killer is found and (if he's still alive) is brought to justice.

Gone 3 months; 4 since he was found...
Timing: Simmons disappeared on June 19th, UID is estimated to have died in late September; found Oct '82

 

[vermontaigne]

This should be listed as a match. I was the tipster. Wanted to remain anonymous, but brother I told shared it with Facebook. Wouldn't post here, but I've tried to send private messages to two mods and my sent box isn't showing anything.

I asked that Websleuths be credited, but the name didn't appear in the Pagosa Sun article. On the plus side, I guess I can blog about how many things had to go right with the info available online for the match to happen, in hopes that helps someone searching for a lost friend/loved one. Can forward email conversation with Detective Barter to a mod for verification, if they'd like. I'd just hoped this forum would get the credit.

 

[bflocket]

So not sure if Margo has been identified or if she even has a thread here but look at this lady:
Nickname: Margo
She went on camping trip to CO w/an unknown sailor. Has to be her right?

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/walden_margaret.html

The "circumstances" for Walden are strikingly similar to Jane Doe's (going to Colorado to camp with a sailor) but I don't think she is Jane Doe.

Jane Doe was noted to have had a hysterectomy with ovaries removed.
Walden had a mastectomy.

Both had "female" surgery, but not the same "female" surgery.

 

[vermontaigne]

Chances are very high that it's Margaret. I was reading through Charley Project's '82 missing in relation to a different UID, chronologically, when I came across Stewart and Margaret's cases. The camping with a sailor thing clicked with Stewart's circumstances. Her mother had stated that the last time she heard from Margaret was when she wired money to Durango for her. I did a Google search, and up popped an article that stated witnesses who believed they'd seen the couple, based on description provided by LE, said that they had been (I paraphrase) up and down the stretch of highway from Durango to Pagosa Springs all summer. I ruminated, dawdled, and finally emailed Detective Barter after New Years. One of the reasons I didn't email it in sooner was that I knew from Charley Project that Stewart had in childhood fractured his skull from ear to ear, and there was nothing in NamUs or elsewhere that indicated the UID had a healed fracture of the skull.

Now, the only way that I made the tentative connection to Stewart was through Margaret's Charley Project entry. So, it would be really mind-blowing to me if it turned out not to be Margaret, since Margaret has never reappeared. Of course, it's possible, but with all of the info, including the remembered name, Margo, which I just found out about from the Pagosa Sun article, I'd be entirely astonished to find it's not her.

 

[CarlK90245]

Changing this Flag to Match!.

Congratulations, Vermontaigne

I look forward to the Rio Arriba Jane Doe being matched to Margaret Walden, and we can chalk up another WS Match!

 

[KateB]

Stewart has a thread in the 1980s Forum I updated yesterday with the good news from here.
GA - Stewart Eric Simmons, 20, San Diego, 19 June 1982

 

[Roselvr]

This should be listed as a match. I was the tipster. Wanted to remain anonymous, but brother I told shared it with Facebook. Wouldn't post here, but I've tried to send private messages to two mods and my sent box isn't showing anything.

I asked that Websleuths be credited, but the name didn't appear in the Pagosa Sun article. On the plus side, I guess I can blog about how many things had to go right with the info available online for the match to happen, in hopes that helps someone searching for a lost friend/loved one. Can forward email conversation with Detective Barter to a mod for verification, if they'd like. I'd just hoped this forum would get the credit.

CONGRATS! Thankful another loved one will be returned to their family!
I still have to read the article lol

 

[vermontaigne]

By the way, the person who deserves by far the most credit is Detective Barter. He's a true mensch. If he hadn't reanimated this case in 2009, I would never have found it online. But it goes further than all the incredible time and effort he's put into this case from the time he took it on. The quality of the newspaper articles in the various papers are a credit to the journalists, but also a reflection of the deep discernment of the Detective in getting out the right details without overwhelming them with noise. The families here did their own investigations, and provided Meaghan and the other profile writers at Charley Project and elsewhere with important details that might have seemed too trivial to include. The people who wrote the case profiles wrote them clearly, and included that important information. Charley Project arranged the profiles in an easily accessible chronological order, which happened to be exactly what was necessary in this case. And you guys . . . you taught me all the little I know about how to go about these things, and provided me with a forum in which to do it. So, I was the lucky guy who just happened to stumble across this, but without all that, this serendipity would never have happened.

And I have to say, reading Stewart's family's comments made me feel great that they were alive to know, though theologically I am one of those people who believes they would have known this and much, much more had they already moved on from here. It's strange, but there you have it, and I'm happy for them they have this much resolution.

And as many of you have mentioned many times, when you or I have done what we can, the job for the investigators has just begun again. I'm confident from having communicated with Detective Barter that if the crime is capable of a solution at this point, he and his team will solve it.

 

[summer_breeze]

Awesome job! Thank you!

 

[Roselvr]

By the way, the person who deserves by far the most credit is Detective Barter. He's a true mensch. If he hadn't reanimated this case in 2009, I would never have found it online. But it goes further than all the incredible time and effort he's put into this case from the time he took it on. The quality of the newspaper articles in the various papers are a credit to the journalists, but also a reflection of the deep discernment of the Detective in getting out the right details without overwhelming them with noise. The families here did their own investigations, and provided Meaghan and the other profile writers at Charley Project and elsewhere with important details that might have seemed too trivial to include. The people who wrote the case profiles wrote them clearly, and included that important information. Charley Project arranged the profiles in an easily accessible chronological order, which happened to be exactly what was necessary in this case. And you guys . . . you taught me all the little I know about how to go about these things, and provided me with a forum in which to do it. So, I was the lucky guy who just happened to stumble across this, but without all that, this serendipity would never have happened.

And I have to say, reading Stewart's family's comments made me feel great that they were alive to know, though theologically I am one of those people who believes they would have known this and much, much more had they already moved on from here. It's strange, but there you have it, and I'm happy for them they have this much resolution.

And as many of you have mentioned many times, when you or I have done what we can, the job for the investigators has just begun again. I'm confident from having communicated with Detective Barter that if the crime is capable of a solution at this point, he and his team will solve it.

Finally read the article; reading what Stewart's parents said broke my heart; how they went to search for him; not knowing where to look. Very thankful they're alive to bring him home. So sorry for their loss.

vermontaigne; I will be surprised if it's not Margo; I wonder if information has gotten lost or miscommunicated like TN Shotgun Jane Doe. The new detective on the case keeps saying her scar is from a hysterectomy; yet Jane Doe's autopsy can be found online stating they feel it's a C-section she had all of her parts.

Victim of 1982 homicide identified

A search for Simmons - “When the days went by and went by … I knew in my heart something had happened,” Joanne Simmons recalled.

The family hired a private detective, then a retired FBI agent in attempts to determine if their son’s social security number or other personal information had been used to report income.

“This was about all you had available to you back then,” Bill Simmons said.

Despite having full-time careers and two other children, the couple also traveled to San Diego and Mexico, searching frantically to see if anyone had seen their son.

“We were just aimlessly driving around as though something were going to appear,” Joanne Simmons recalled. “It was just a nightmare; it truly was.”

Over the years, Simmons’ parents never stopped looking — tracking down dental records from a deceased dentist, poring over unidentified persons across the U.S. and religiously watching cold-case and unsolved case shows on TV, finally filing an unofficial missing persons report in Georgia in 1999, submitting personal items owned by their son for DNA as technology advanced — and always made sure their phone number remained the same and that their home had a place for their son should he turn up.

“We just never stopped looking. Ever,” Joanne Simmons stated.

Returning home

Now, almost 32 years after he initially disappeared, Simmons will return home in the coming months.

“We are anxiously awaiting his arrival home,” Joanne Simmons said, noting that their younger daughter will escort Simmons’ cremated remains home, where the family will hold a memorial service.

“He was loved. He was very loved, and he has been painfully missed for 31 years.” Joanne Simmons said.

Of Barter, she said, “He has given us a gift that nobody else in this world could have given us. … We will be eternally grateful for that.”

Stewart Simmons / Pagosa Springs John Doe - WS Posts
Found Deceased GA - Stewart Eric Simmons, 20, San Diego, 19 June 1982

CO - Pagosa Springs, WhtMale1282UMCO, 20-28,"Lazy B" TShirt, Oct'82 *Stewart Simmons*


Stewart Simmons / Pagosa Springs John Doe - NamUs Links for anyone that wants to save the info before it goes offline...

NamUs UP #5327 Google Cache DNA Status: Complete - Insufficient DNA for profiling - Dental information / charting is available and entered
Stewart Simmons NamUs MP # 717 Google cache DNA Status: Sample is currently not available - Dental information / charting is currently not available - Simmons was in the United States Navy in 1982 and was stationed in San Diego, California. He got into a minor altercation and was sent to the brig for a short time. Simmons was granted temporary release to locate his vehicle; he disappeared during this time. Three weeks later, his military identification was used on the base to rent camping equipment, but it has not been established that it was Simmons using the ID. He has never been heard from again.
Simmons resided in Georgia at the time of his disappearance; his family also lives there. He has ties to South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Mexico as well. His family filed a missing persons report with the Roswell, Georgia police in 1999, seventeen years after Simmons vanished.


Margaret Walden / Rio Arriba Jane Doe - WS Posts
I did a search for Margaret; do not see a post. Does someone have time to set one up?
NM - Rio Arriba Co., WhtFem 55UFNM, 25-35, San Juan River near Pagosa Springs, Sep'82

Margaret Walden / Rio Arriba Jane Doe - NamUs Links
Margaret Walden DNA Status: Sample submitted - Tests complete Biopsy scar Lt. wrist; bullet wound scar chest; mastectomy scars; vertical scar on back.
NamUs UP # 5326 DNA Status: Sample submitted - Tests complete Organ absent uterus

 

[Kimster]

By the way, the person who deserves by far the most credit is Detective Barter. He's a true mensch. If he hadn't reanimated this case in 2009, I would never have found it online. But it goes further than all the incredible time and effort he's put into this case from the time he took it on. The quality of the newspaper articles in the various papers are a credit to the journalists, but also a reflection of the deep discernment of the Detective in getting out the right details without overwhelming them with noise. The families here did their own investigations, and provided Meaghan and the other profile writers at Charley Project and elsewhere with important details that might have seemed too trivial to include. The people who wrote the case profiles wrote them clearly, and included that important information. Charley Project arranged the profiles in an easily accessible chronological order, which happened to be exactly what was necessary in this case. And you guys . . . you taught me all the little I know about how to go about these things, and provided me with a forum in which to do it. So, I was the lucky guy who just happened to stumble across this, but without all that, this serendipity would never have happened.

And I have to say, reading Stewart's family's comments made me feel great that they were alive to know, though theologically I am one of those people who believes they would have known this and much, much more had they already moved on from here. It's strange, but there you have it, and I'm happy for them they have this much resolution.

And as many of you have mentioned many times, when you or I have done what we can, the job for the investigators has just begun again. I'm confident from having communicated with Detective Barter that if the crime is capable of a solution at this point, he and his team will solve it.

:loveyou:

Here come the tears! THANK YOU for taking the time to figure out this case. This is why all of you spend hours and hours combing through information and links and websites putting the pieces together. I hope this gives you all a boost to keep on keeping on!

:grouphug:

:fireworks:

At the same time, I pray for Stewart's loved ones. :rose: May they have peace during this new chapter.

 

[Snufamonbobball]

Amazing job, good work!!!

 

[bessie]

Nice job! Thank you!!!

Of Barter, she said, “He has given us a gift that nobody else in this world could have given us. … We will be eternally grateful for that.”

With a little help. But those words really say it all, don't they.

Rest in Peace, Stewart. :rose:

 

[Irish_Eyes]

Nice job Vermontaigne, and kudos to the detective too. So happy that the Simmons family has the answers they have been searching for.

 

[SoSueMe]

Wonderful news and congratulations Vermontaigne!

 

[~n/t~]

Awesome job, Vermontaigne!

:highfive:

 

[Fairy1]

Thanks so much for sharing, vermontaigne and congratulations! I'm really so impressed! What a great job. No doubt in my mind you have had a huge hand in returning two loved ones to their families.