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

[Kiranerys]

Was Charlie introspective and withdrawn like the letter writer? Had Charlie experienced unique advantages, privileges, and experiences? It sounds like he was very intelligent as evidenced by his grades and exam score but would Charlie write something so staid and formal? Would he be the type to read the works of Durkheim? Were the clothes found on the UID typical of something Charlie would wear (down to mismatched socks)?

Charlie's mom's account of his drug use and new friends make it seem like he might have been more impulsive and social than the letter writer. The suicide was obviously methodically planned and executed (unlike Charlie's jumping out of a window). I just don't get the feeling that the letter writer's reference to lingering for "years under care" is a reference to residential substance abuse treatment.

It's almost as if the ruling out of the body as Charlie's by his mom doesn't take into account other attributes of the UID that we can surmise from the note and from the careful planning of the suicide. We hear details about Charlie's physical characteristics but not much about his mannerisms and personality.

Part of the article quotes a part of the note and says that to the wallaces it was as if Charlie was talking straight to them. Just my take on it but I understood that to mean the way the note was written was characteristic of Charlie.

I think you could be right, she recognised him but didn't want to admit it.

 

[Sweetluv]

Am I reading this right?? Did the article about Mrs. Wallace going to identify the body actually say that the dental chart matched Charlies!?

 

[Kiranerys]

Am I reading this right?? Did the article about Mrs. Wallace going to identify the body actually say that the dental chart matched Charlies!?

Yes! Exactly. How can it not have been him?

 

[snowgoose]

I think I've found obituaries for Charlie Wallace's parents,both say they were proceeded in death by their son Charles. That's about as far as I've got

It would be great to find Charles Wallace's own obituary or death certificate if there's any way... would be good to know whether his body was found elsewhere, or if he was simply presumed dead without ever being found.

 

[Kiranerys]

It would be great to find Charles Wallace's own obituary or death certificate if there's any way... would be good to know whether his body was found elsewhere, or if he was simply presumed dead without ever being found.

It really would!. Sadly I haven't found any mention of him outside of this thread and the obituaries.
I'm in the UK so don't have access to yearbooks online,if anyone here has a subscription and could maybe find a photo of him at least we could compare with the sketch.

 

[Baudelaire]

New Orleans States-Item Apr 2, 1975 - Pg 2

Omg that's terrible!

 

[Baudelaire]

It really would!. Sadly I haven't found any mention of him outside of this thread and the obituaries.
I'm in the UK so don't have access to yearbooks online,if anyone here has a subscription and could maybe find a photo of him at least we could compare with the sketch.

You don't need a subscription, the names are under the thumbnails

 

[Baudelaire]

It would be great to find Charles Wallace's own obituary or death certificate if there's any way... would be good to know whether his body was found elsewhere, or if he was simply presumed dead without ever being found.

You first have to find out more about him, like when did he die and where. There might not be an obituary for him. It's the same as Bayard Cousins, his parents has obits, not him, they just said what Charlie's parents said, that he predeceased them.

Charlie was a drug addict. If i has to put money on it he sunk into the drug underworld of new Orleans and possibly passed in the same decade from an overdose. If he had not, his parents would not have said that in their obits.

 

[Baudelaire]

I can't find any mention of him searching google.

How is it possible that the dentals matched, the scar in the mouth matched, he looked like Charley but it wasn't him?. I know the report says a scar was missing on his knee but maybe it was faded and hard to see?. This just feels to me that his mother was clinging on to that tiny bit of doubt sue to a slight distortion of his features in death

If the dental matched its pretty much game over, dental are good forensic evidence. However all is not lost, BCJD dental are gone but Charlies6could still be traced if we can find out where he lived and what dentists practiced in the area and.... Long shot, where their records are.

 

[Baudelaire]

One can read her confusion. I quite liked @Baudelaire’s clues pointing to Bayard Cousins. I’m not sure I’ll ever hear from the Orleans Parish Coroner, and the death certificates are only available 50 years post-mortem. It’s inly 47 for this young man. I would dearly want to get his age pinned down.

Not only my posts. In my humble opinion has posted a lot of info. You spoke about the persimone tree. Yes it was picked specifically, his mother was some kind of scientist /expert about trees. Add to that, there was a Cousins in the AFB at the time, add to that he grew up in wealthy Virginia Beach which basically screams private school and there is a grad pic. Already posted on this thread.

It may be rural back water, but it's rural back water with a specific tree and a tree that a scientist/expert would certainly seek out and people from the AFB would know the back woods there if they hiked or hunted.

And to top it all off, he hangs himself.... In a tree. Is it just me or does everyone get the message he's trying to send. I respect you, i love you, i know you will look here, here... Read this, it's not your fault.

 

[Baudelaire]

New Orleans States-Item Apr 2, 1975 - Pg 2

Thank you Carl

 

[Baudelaire]

Please excuse my many grammar mistakes. I got excited.

 

[Curious_in_NC]

Charlie was a drug addict. If i has to put money on it he sunk into the drug underworld of new Orleans and possibly passed in the same decade from an overdose. If he had not, his parents would not have said that in their obits.

rsbm
It's hard to know much about a person from a few crumbs of their life presented in a news article. But the article described use of marijuana, at least one use of LSD, and several subsequent suicide attempts. No other drugs were mentioned. This sounds more like psychiatric issues than any kind of addiction. Whether he was being treated appropriately for this is hard to tell. The States-Item article only describes him being at a "Memphis home for teenagers with drug problems".

There's also no reason given for why they thought he would have gone to New Orleans. It's 400 miles from Memphis. If one was seeking an LSD infused "underworld" there was plenty to go around in Memphis in the early 70s. "It Came from Memphis" by Robert Gordon captures a lot of this culture from the perspective of how it was linked to the local music and arts scene of the time. Or there's a brief account you can read here: Local Treasures: John McIntire

The scar and dentals do seem like rather overwhelming evidence for a match. Still, the scant details from the articles leave questions. Would a former FFA leader and aspiring engineer be reading and quoting Emile Durckheim? Would an interest in the Navy cause friction with a retired Air Force Major father? Also there's the age discrepancy. Was he just 19 or was he older if he had actually graduated HS in 1971?

 

[Tony1902]

There have been times this past week that I think that we will never know who he is. From the New Orleans papers, he walked to that tree just before dark, when the couple passed by at 5:25. So time of death was somewhere between 5:30> to 11:30 when they saw him in the tree.

I put in two phone calls this week, one to the Orleans Parish Coroner's office and to the Plaquemine Parish Coroner's office. It's like talking to a brick wall. The Plaquemine Gazetteer is only available through LSU's Hill Library, for which one must go through hoops.

I'm leaning towards Bayard Cousins. If his father was stationed in Belle Chasse (which we pronounce as chase,)
he would know the area well enough to pick such a poignant place. Close to dark, when there was little chance of someone interrupting him. His use of Durkheim points toward a liberal arts major or an East Bank prep school.
However, why was a teenager alone? Why was he never reported missing? If he did go to a prep school, surely the school would have called his parents? All I have are questions. If Harry Connick was the coroner then, I have more questions.

The dental records and the scar inside his mouth would point towards Charlie Wallace. Such frustration. Sorry for the epistle.

 

[Kiranerys]

Whenever I have tried to look at yearbooks the website asks me which school I attended befor I can join

 

[Kiranerys]

There have been times this past week that I think that we will never know who he is. From the New Orleans papers, he walked to that tree just before dark, when the couple passed by at 5:25. So time of death was somewhere between 5:30> to 11:30 when they saw him in the tree.

I put in two phone calls this week, one to the Orleans Parish Coroner's office and to the Plaquemine Parish Coroner's office. It's like talking to a brick wall. The Plaquemine Gazetteer is only available through LSU's Hill Library, for which one must go through hoops.

I'm leaning towards Bayard Cousins. If his father was stationed in Belle Chasse (which we pronounce as chase,)
he would know the area well enough to pick such a poignant place. Close to dark, when there was little chance of someone interrupting him. His use of Durkheim points toward a liberal arts major or an East Bank prep school.
However, why was a teenager alone? Why was he never reported missing? If he did go to a prep school, surely the school would have called his parents? All I have are questions. If Harry Connick was the coroner then, I have more questions.

The dental records and the scar inside his mouth would point towards Charlie Wallace. Such frustration. Sorry for the epistle.

I was almost 100% sure that JD was Bayard Cousins, the sketch looks just like him imo, but the scar and the dentals say Charlie. I hope we can find a yearbook photo of Charlie somewhere to compare.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I can't find any mention of him searching google.

How is it possible that the dentals matched, the scar in the mouth matched, he looked like Charley but it wasn't him?. I know the report says a scar was missing on his knee but maybe it was faded and hard to see?. This just feels to me that his mother was clinging on to that tiny bit of doubt sue to a slight distortion of his features in death

I agree with you. It depends on what's meant by the dentals matching, but people are often identified by dentals alone.

 

[Tony1902]

I have such a faulty memory, all I had to do was google it. Frank Minyard was the coroner then for Orleans Parish. Harry Connick was the DA. Oops.

 

[Sweetluv]

If there are writing samples of Charlie and Bayard, they could be compared to the note found in the glass jar (?)
Do we know if the sheet, jar, or the clothing he was wearing is still in existence for further DNA testing or was this all lost as well?

 

[pol100gk]

Regarding matching dental chart, how detailed are these dental charts? If someone has no fillings, for example, and nothing noteworthy such as overbite or crossbite, then a dental chart is more of a means of excluding someone rather than identifying them? So, say, if someone had their wisdom teeth taken out but a JD still has wisdom teeth, that is obviously not a match. But if your dental record is fairly average, wouldn't a 'match' rather mean that it could be that person but not much more than that?