Identified! ID - Nez Perce Co., WhtMale 229UMID, 18-99, in Snake River, Jun'82 Dewayne Surls

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Did you receive any word whether the remains were a match, MadMcGoo?
I haven’t heard a word unfortunately.

ETA: I keep checking back on this one, and something tells me a comparison is going to be difficult due to lack of identifiers for Chris. I can’t be certain of that though, it’s just a gut feeling.
 
@Caring1 Hey could you post the current list of NamUs exclusions for this John Doe? I would greatly appreciate it.
 
A family tree posted for Dewayne on Ancestry lists his date of death as June 14th, 1982, so I'm inclined to think he disappeared that day and was reported missing.View attachment 530808
Unless that Ancestry list for Dewayne was posted recently, this is very curious. I’m also noticing that the Othram update article didn’t mention anything about the homicide/gunwounds (same for the Namus article - UP3041 - which is still up, and I made a PDF, because I guess it will be removed soon.) The Doe Network article (229UMID) does mention the gunshots.

Note that it was 1982, not 1984, as the image suggests - unless the poster had their own reasons for making it 1984.

As other posters have noted, very strange a young man 16/17 is not reported missing. There has got to be so much more to this story - even before the homicide is solved, if ever. The Doe Network article says, "He was shot once in the left shoulder and once in the neck.” Suicide possible? Doesn’t seem like it, unless he was masochistic (you’d want to know which shoulder and what his dominant hand was to ever consider.)

I did a Newspapers.com search between 1965 and 1984 for ‘Dewayne Surls’ in both Idaho and Washington (without a subscription.) No results.
 
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Unless that Ancestry list for Dewayne was posted recently, this is very curious. I’m also noticing that the Othram update article didn’t mention anything about the homicide/gunwounds (same for the Namus article - UP3041 - which is still up, and I made a PDF, because I guess it will be removed soon.) The Doe Network article (229UMID) does mention the gunshots.

Note that it was 1982, not 1984, as the image suggests - unless the poster had their own reasons for making it 1984.

As other posters have noted, very strange a young man 16/17 is not reported missing. There has got to be so much more to this story - even before the homicide is solved, if ever.

I did a Newspapers.com search between 1965 and 1984 for ‘Dewayne Surls’ in both Idaho and Washington (without a subscription.) No results.
This is definitely a strange case. Glad he got his name back.
 
Here’s the gunshot info from the Doe Network article. If young Dewayne really was the same person missing in a drowning accident, then either he was shot before drowning, or drowned and was shot for sport by someone who didn’t report finding the body (the latter would be very strange, hard to believe.)

Perhaps this is now a very active homicide investigation, and Nez Perce County Sheriff and/or that other county are staying mum for investigative reasons:


1726199229703.png
 
“Crystal”, from my earlier screenshot, with her own Idaho Cold Cases facebook page, is all over this:

 
“Crystal”, from my earlier screenshot, with her own Idaho Cold Cases facebook page, is all over this:

Ah, that's why I couldn't find anything - they spelled his name wrong.
RIGGINS (AP) Two Moscow teenagers are missing, and authorities say they may have drowned in the Snake River after a car accident June 14. Michael Coffin, 18, and Dwayne Surls left Moscow for Boise June 14 in a blue 1976 Datsun, Idaho County Sheriff Bud Walkup said. A few hours later, about midnight, residents near the Snake River along U.S. 95 just north of Riggins reported what sounded like a car plunging into the river, Walkup said. Blue paint was found on rocks at the river's edge, and tire and skid marks indicated that a compact car went into the river, Walkup said.
Authorities said they have been unable to search for the bodies or the car because of the condition of the river
 
The drowning on June 14, 1982 happened in Riggins in Idaho County. Dewayne was found in Nez Perce county, just below Latah County, where the two were from. Nez Perce County is just below Latah, and has a small part of its southern border on Idaho County. Yet they couldn’t put the June 26, 1982 body found together. That is really strange. Note the sketch of Dewayne shown in the Doe Network article link I posted above, is, to me, a accurate enough likeness.
 
Ah, that's why I couldn't find anything - they spelled his name wrong.
RIGGINS (AP) Two Moscow teenagers are missing, and authorities say they may have drowned in the Snake River after a car accident June 14. Michael Coffin, 18, and Dwayne Surls left Moscow for Boise June 14 in a blue 1976 Datsun, Idaho County Sheriff Bud Walkup said. A few hours later, about midnight, residents near the Snake River along U.S. 95 just north of Riggins reported what sounded like a car plunging into the river, Walkup said. Blue paint was found on rocks at the river's edge, and tire and skid marks indicated that a compact car went into the river, Walkup said.
Authorities said they have been unable to search for the bodies or the car because of the condition of the river
Are you thinking the 1982 news article got it wrong (left out the first ‘e’ in Dewayne?) And Othram got it right?
 

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