Resolved NY - North Collins, Male Skeletal Remains buried off Gowanda Rd, Jun'17

[madamx]

Does anyone know if this UID has any rule outs?
I do believe this could be James Knox.. Tonight Coffee56 posted the Charley Project Listing for James and listed his job info that brought me back here and really makes me think this UID could be him.

James Dean Knox – The Charley Project

Details of Disappearance
Knox was last seen in Warsaw, New York sometime in December 1979. Local friends and business owners in the area saw him on December 10th and 11th and he vanished sometime after that. He has never been heard from again. His grandmother reported him missing on December 21; she hadn't seen him since December 9.

Knox lived on Wyoming Street and was on medical leave from Leroy Machine Co. in Leroy, New York at the time of his disappearance. He was known to frequent a pizzeria in Warsaw. He was despondent over his health issues when he went missing. Few details are available in Knox's case. His disappearance remains unsolved.



Leroy NY is so close to North Collins and so is where he lived in Warsaw. I am enclosing the link to the map.

I added pushpins to show locations.. hopefully they will transfer on the link.. I don't know I have never done it before.

Maps

 

[inmyhumbleopinion]

Does anyone know if this UID has any rule outs?
I do believe this could be James Knox.. Tonight Coffee56 posted the Charley Project Listing for James and listed his job info that brought me back here and really makes me think this UID could be him.

James Dean Knox – The Charley Project

Details of Disappearance
Knox was last seen in Warsaw, New York sometime in December 1979. Local friends and business owners in the area saw him on December 10th and 11th and he vanished sometime after that. He has never been heard from again. His grandmother reported him missing on December 21; she hadn't seen him since December 9.

Knox lived on Wyoming Street and was on medical leave from Leroy Machine Co. in Leroy, New York at the time of his disappearance. He was known to frequent a pizzeria in Warsaw. He was despondent over his health issues when he went missing. Few details are available in Knox's case. His disappearance remains unsolved.



Leroy NY is so close to North Collins and so is where he lived in Warsaw. I am enclosing the link to the map.

I added pushpins to show locations.. hopefully they will transfer on the link.. I don't know I have never done it before.

Maps

The only rule out for the UID per NAMUS is Mark Anthony Seifert:

“Date of Last Contact: February 13, 1984;

Last Known Location: Machias, New York (Cattaraugus County);

Circumstances of Disappearance: Victim’s vehicle was located destroyed by fire on a rural road without the victim. The victims brother William Seifert was convicted of Marks murder, but the body has never been located.“
Missing Person Case

Sounds awful. Mr. Seifert has a total of 21 exclusions.

 

[Falling Down]

Does anyone know if this UID has any rule outs?
I do believe this could be James Knox.. Tonight Coffee56 posted the Charley Project Listing for James and listed his job info that brought me back here and really makes me think this UID could be him.

James Dean Knox – The Charley Project

Details of Disappearance
Knox was last seen in Warsaw, New York sometime in December 1979. Local friends and business owners in the area saw him on December 10th and 11th and he vanished sometime after that. He has never been heard from again. His grandmother reported him missing on December 21; she hadn't seen him since December 9.

Knox lived on Wyoming Street and was on medical leave from Leroy Machine Co. in Leroy, New York at the time of his disappearance. He was known to frequent a pizzeria in Warsaw. He was despondent over his health issues when he went missing. Few details are available in Knox's case. His disappearance remains unsolved.



Leroy NY is so close to North Collins and so is where he lived in Warsaw. I am enclosing the link to the map.

I added pushpins to show locations.. hopefully they will transfer on the link.. I don't know I have never done it before.

Maps

At first I was a bit skeptical, and I'm from that general region of NY.

Then it hit me, is it possible his workplace (Leroy Machine) is where the pen came from? Could be the company on Detroit did business with them, and gave them free pens and whatnot.

 

[Falling Down]

MSM links:

Can DNA identify victim of decades-old North Collins murder?

Human remains found in North Collins sent to NYC for analysis

 

[madamx]

At first I was a bit skeptical, and I'm from that general region of NY.

Then it hit me, is it possible his workplace (Leroy Machine) is where the pen came from? Could be the company on Detroit did business with them, and gave them free pens and whatnot.

oh wow that is a really good point!..

 

[madamx]

I searched the Detroit Free Press's archives for the phone number on the pen. A company called "Metacore" with the same number (although the area code is not included) ran several ads in 1979 trying to sell a '69 Diamond REO Tandem dump truck.

Newspapers.com search

A search for "Metacore" revealed multiple ads to buy scrap aluminum transitions; these ran in 1983 and there are two addresses listed for the company, both in Detroit. The name admittedly sounds like a metal recycling company, and those definitely use heavy-duty dump trucks in their daily operations.

So maybe FTACore became Metacore sometime prior to 1979, though that still doesn't tell us when the UID acquired the pen.

If Metacore was a metal recycling place. they could possibly be working with a machine shop.. Machine shops always have scraps from finished jobs that they sell off in drums by the pound to metal recycling places..They could of worked with them or Metacore could of sent out promo pens to different machine shops to drum up business.. who knows.. But Yes Falling Down.. I think your on to something with the Pen. I had totally forgotten about the pen!!

 

[Gardener1850]

Does anyone know if this UID has any rule outs?
I do believe this could be James Knox.. Tonight Coffee56 posted the Charley Project Listing for James and listed his job info that brought me back here and really makes me think this UID could be him.

James Dean Knox – The Charley Project

Details of Disappearance
Knox was last seen in Warsaw, New York sometime in December 1979. Local friends and business owners in the area saw him on December 10th and 11th and he vanished sometime after that. He has never been heard from again. His grandmother reported him missing on December 21; she hadn't seen him since December 9.

Knox lived on Wyoming Street and was on medical leave from Leroy Machine Co. in Leroy, New York at the time of his disappearance. He was known to frequent a pizzeria in Warsaw. He was despondent over his health issues when he went missing. Few details are available in Knox's case. His disappearance remains unsolved.



Leroy NY is so close to North Collins and so is where he lived in Warsaw. I am enclosing the link to the map.

I added pushpins to show locations.. hopefully they will transfer on the link.. I don't know I have never done it before.

Maps

This looks really promising! Location makes sense and pen could be explained. Hair description is a match. Height within the range. Even his clothing is similar-- boots and a plaid jacket, just the wrong colors. Although I don't recall the UID's jacket being described as plaid they described it as a "Barry Dolan" jacket. And when I search for Barry Dolan Jackets a plaid one is one of the looks that comes up: RustyZipper.Com Vintage Clothing

 

[madamx]

This looks really promising! Location makes sense and pen could be explained. Hair description is a match. Height within the range. Even his clothing is similar-- boots and a plaid jacket, just the wrong colors. Although I don't recall the UID's jacket being described as plaid they described it as a "Barry Dolan" jacket. And when I search for Barry Dolan Jackets a plaid one is one of the looks that comes up: RustyZipper.Com Vintage Clothing

oh wow.. so the Barry Dolans jacket is a plaid jacket... wow!

 

[madamx]

MSM links:

Can DNA identify victim of decades-old North Collins murder?

Human remains found in North Collins sent to NYC for analysis

Savage heads the detective division at the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, and has spent the better part of a year trying to solve this murder mystery.

Very little of the skeletal remains were salvageable...but other clues held up surprisingly well, like a pen with a Detroit address on it.

"He had a leather tri-fold wallet. He had a comb,” Savage said of certain intact clues.

The remains were also found with a pair of Kaufman boots, likely produced in the 1960s or 1970s. A jacket with a Barry Dolan label was also produced in the 70s.

Investigators and anthropologists say the remains are likely a white man, who was between 15 and 25 when he was killed, possibly with curly, dirty blonde hair.

But detectives admit they won't tell us everything; They're keeping a few details secret in case someone ever reveals a detail that only someone with information would know.

Using sophisticated techniques, New York City's Chief Medical Examiner office was able to get a nuclear DNA profile from bone samples. Erie County has sent that to every federal DNA database and missing persons list to no avail.

Without a DNA match, identifying a man from a 50-year-old murder will be difficult.

Captain Savage hopes a similar DNA profile might lead him to a living relative who might remember a cousin, uncle, or grandfather who went missing.

"Are they still alive, are they still around, are they from this area? Those are the questions and factors that are going to probably determine the likelihood of whether or not we can ever identify who this individual was,” Savage said.

 

[Gardener1850]

oh wow.. so the Barry Dolans jacket is a plaid jacket... wow!

It could be a plaid jacket or it could be a tan/brown one: RustyZipper.Com Vintage Clothing

The UID listing does not specify the color of the jacket. Which makes me wonder if it was too faded or perhaps the material was so degraded that only the Barry Dolan label was still present.

JMO.

 

[Falling Down]

RE: the pen

Or did the killer leave the pen?

 

[Two for the road]

RE: the pen

Or did the killer leave the pen?

I had that same thought!

 

[iulia]

I'm getting a permission error for this UID on his NamUs page. I can't find any news about his identification though.

 

[Mike in WNY]

I'm getting a permission error for this UID on his NamUs page. I can't find any news about his identification though.

I'm not much familiar with using the NamUs facility, so I'm not certain what 'permission error' might mean. FWIW - admitting that I'm not fully knowledgeable in NamUs use, I cannot find this persons data there either (but I don't get any kind of error, just no return data). As I live in Western New York State in the media market in which this person was found, I'd think that news of identification - or any meaningful development - would have been quite prominent... and I've not heard any such thing.

 

[Gardener1850]

When NAMUS is removed it often means the case has been solved. But it could also mean they temporarily took the case down to update it. Sometimes we don't get any media updates right away because they don't want to alert a suspect that the victim has been identified. I so hope we get a media update soon identifying this person. He deserves to go home and get justice too.

MOO.

 

[iulia]

I'm not much familiar with using the NamUs facility, so I'm not certain what 'permission error' might mean. FWIW - admitting that I'm not fully knowledgeable in NamUs use, I cannot find this persons data there either (but I don't get any kind of error, just no return data). As I live in Western New York State in the media market in which this person was found, I'd think that news of identification - or any meaningful development - would have been quite prominent... and I've not heard any such thing.

I’m not super familiar with NamUs either, but @Gardener1850 explained it really well (thank you for that).
His NamUs page was The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
I’ll try to check it from time to time to see if it comes up back again.

 

[Eddie99]

I think they must have solved this one. Namus hasn't been up for a couple of weeks.

I cannot find any mention of it in the news.

 

[Mike in WNY]

Seems odd that there'd be no press about it being solved (or, for that matter, even some material development of any kind). The "find" was covered fairly heavily at the time by pretty much every Western New York State media outlet. And, given the additional element of Mercyhurst's forensic department involvement, the silence seems rather deafening (to me).

 

[Falling Down]

Russell Smrekar died on October 26, 2011 of cancer at the at Menard Correctional Center. He gave a deathbed confession to murdering Michael Mansfield to police. Michael's body has not been recovered Peoria Journal Star.

More on this creep:

Luciano: Police seek remains in '76 killing spree by Russell Smrekar

 

[Falling Down]

RE: my last post

I meant to say hat tip to grace mouse and madamx.

I work in manufacturing, metals recycling is a big business and often times it's a shady one, too.

Both the Niagara Frontier and Detroit had a lot of heavy manufacturing back in those days. There would have been a lot of recycling of metals outbound from companies, and recyclable metals inbound into companies. My hunch is a lot of these recycled metals traveled by barges pulled by lake freighters, along the lakes back then.

Which companies along the Niagara Frontier would have needed many tons of used metals? A lot, in fact the list would be huge. Most of those companies are long gone. Some of the names active in that part of the 70's would have been Bethlehem Steel (Lackawanna), Republic Steel (south side of the city of Buffalo), Buffalo Brass (that name might not be 100% accurate), General Motors, Ford Motor Company, etc., etc. etc.

So I can see there could be a strong connection with Detroit, same as other cities around Lake Erie on both sides of the border.

One other thing to consider is the heavy mob activity in both Buffalo and Detroit back then. As I wrote above, the metals recycling business can be very shady, it's been that way for decades.

-FD