LA LA - Belle Chasse, WhtMale 16-17, UP88342, hanged, suicide note, Feb'75

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If he drove to Louisiana, he might have abandoned the car. Maybe look/ask if there were any abandoned vehicles in the area around the time of his death. Also, I just read that Bayard Cousins, Missing Person Case, was an ecology activist. Which might explain why John Doe hanged himself on a tree in the woods. Not sure if this was mentioned but he could have disposed of his glasses to make identification harder.
 
namstache said:
Bayard Cousins' case was modified in NAMUS today. I don't know what the change was.
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From Cousins' NamUs:

Circumstances of Disappearance: Bayard Cousins left his residence while his parents were out of town. They came back to a note stating not to worry about him. There were no indications of any issues with Bayard prior to his disappearance. He has never been seen or heard from again. Bayard is fluent in Spanish and was an ecology activist.
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Was there a mention of a note there before? I've read through the thread, and I can't recall reading anything about a note (but that's a while ago, so please correct me if I'm wrong!).

Edit: Correcting myself, because I've read through it again, and I was wrong! All apologies!
 
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pass-thru said:
No he was not cremated. It says that directly in one of the linked articles earlier in the tread....he was buried in a paupers grave in Allgiers LA.

At the time that I called this in to the Virginia Beach police Detective on the Bayard Cousins case last winter, I had called around spoke to the coroners office for Plaquemines Parish, Jefferson Parish, and Orleans Parish. It's very convoluted and I may be off in my recollections, but: at the time he was found in Plaquemines Parish, I believe they used the morgue in Orleans, and that's why he's buried in Algiers. But all of the Orleans records were lost to Katrina. Now I believe Plaquenmines uses Jefferson Parish....so that's where I was referred at first. Now all doe's are cremated...but not back then.

Anyway, all pertinent records were lost in Katrina. The only hope of finding this grave is through the Mothe funeral home. That is very clear to me. The owner at the time and his son who was young then, are still alive and both old now. They kept this body on ice for several months and had hundreds of parents cycle through there business to view it. It got national press. Surely they remember the body...maybe they remember where it was buried.

Having called in the possible match with Bayard Cousins (who I am completely convinced is the Doe), I did not follow up with the funeral home. I did not want to interfere with the investigation. Coincidentally at the time I was living in Virginia Beach. I did pass the funeral home tip on to the Detective. I did not hear back from her on that specifically but she is confident the ID is correct and was working through local law enforcement in LA to try to locate the body. I am not optimistic that a match will ever be made due to the unknown whereabouts of the body.

Bayard has an aunt and a sister still living. I wonder if they are aware of the possible match? His mother just died a couple of years ago. Surely his family could look at the articles and know if that was their loved one.
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Did you ever hear back from the detective? Any updates? Thanks in advance.
 
Was Bayard Cousin ever suggested/ruled out? Because I feel very much like he could be a match.

The age, circumstances and even his appearance match imo. The short bit about the circumstances of his disappearance on his NamUs page make him sound like an intelligent young man. Of course that’s speculation on my part, but it account for how well written the suicide note was.
 
LeenC said:
Was Bayard Cousin ever suggested/ruled out? Because I feel very much like he could be a match.
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Bayard Cousins has been suggested several times throughout this thread, but can't be confirmed as Belle Chasse John Doe, nor ruled out due to lack of identifiers of BCJD and no body to obtain these from.
 
Sweetsbeach said:
Did you ever hear back from the detective? Any updates? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

No I never did. The last time I reached out to her was over 3 years ago by email, and she never responded. In one of our conversations she had said that Bayard had 2 surviving relatives....a sister and an aunt. I always wondered if they new about this suspected match. Maybe knowing him, they could tell by the language of the letter. I guess if they googled his name they would have found threads like this.
With hurricane Katrina, records on paupers graves were lost. Because there was so much interest in his case at the time he died, maybe somebody from the Mothe funeral home could remember where he was buried. The guy who ran the funeral home when Bayard's name came up, was part of the family run operation, and had been there at the time of the burial. But it would require law enforcement to run that lead down....they won't disclose that stuff to the public.
 
Anyone know how the ME estimated his age range? Skull sutures are usually fully closed by age 20, which they could have easily determined by postmortem X-ray.
Also, the Puritan brand on his shirt is interesting. This is a rather pricey sportswear that is manufactured and sold on Cape Cod. Puritan Shops have been around forever in MA, but I cannot ever say that I’ve seen the brand for sale in other parts of the country.
 
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