OH OH - South Euclid, WhtMale 20-30, 484UMOH, 'Don Bosco Tech' TShirt, May'81

[jessunlil]

I found one Joseph van Thyne on Facebook & he currently resides in Santa Barbara, CA. There is a viewable profile pic but the rest of his info is not viewable by non-friends.

I did not want to directly link to his profile (didn't feel right) but he is searchable on Facebook.

 

[CarlK90245]

The facebook guy IS the same Joseph V-- T----. He has a Bosco Tech logo among his friends on his facebook page. So we can rule him out.

Here is the yearbook photo that caught my attention.
<modsnip>

I was very limited for time, and was not allowed to use the photocopier, so it was not a very well-organized process. The librarian scanned and e-mailed PDF's of the photos of Joe Van Thyne, but he wasn't going to do that for every Joe in the four years of yearbooks. I was taking photos with my iPhone, which weren't coming out very well. I then started using a Canon Rebel but it was hard to focus in on pages of a yearbook. Also, their names weren't always next to the photo, so I tried to photograph their names from the book, and sometimes the names were out of focus.

There are a few others who may be the right guy, but I will have to spend a little time arranging the photos, and trying to figure out the names.

A few things of interest from the discussion with the two people that I spoke with at Bosco Tech. (i.e., the librarian, and another older man who has been there since the 70's)

Their school colors are black and Gold. The older man said that he can't recall any "Don Bosco Tech - Physical Ed" shirts that were white with green lettering.

There were three Don Bosco Technical Institutes in the U.S. (one in L.A., one in New Jersey, and one in Boston), although the other two have since changed their names and have become secular schools. The school colors of the New Jersey DBTI were maroon and white. He couldn't find what the school colors of the Boston DBTI were.

The Physical-Ed classes only apply to freshmen, so if he got that shirt from that school, it had to have been during is freshman year.

 

[carbuff]

"xxxx phys ed" shirts are usually popular items at school stores. People like them for workouts and such.

 

[frankr]

Carl, first thanks for all your help!

I will look up some more info on the former Don Bosco Tech in NJ since he apparently "spent time there". I will post more later, when I have more time.

 

[frankr]

I'm on my way out, but what about this guy?

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/88dmpa.html

The name, weight, and high hairline seem to match.

 

[carbuff]

I'm on my way out, but what about this guy?

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/88dmpa.html

The name, weight, and high hairline seem to match.

He's also reported to have been to California.

And it may not be significant, but a mentally ill man who's into Carlos Castaneda might well have tried to fly off that rock formation...

Looks pretty good to me.

 

[CarlK90245]

Here are three more that are remote possibles from the yearbooks. I can't find any of them in Facebook (although I can't read the name of the third guy).

<Modsnip>

I don't think that any of these are the guy. H----- looks like he could be a much younger version of the same guy. D--------'s face is too long. The third guy's eyebrows are too thick. None of the others are even remotely close enough to bother with.

 

[CarlK90245]

I'm on my way out, but what about this guy?

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/88dmpa.html

The name, weight, and high hairline seem to match.

I don't see it. It doesn't look like him to me.

 

[Billylee]

I used to wear a lot of "logo" t-shirts when I was younger. "University of Santa Cruz","UC Berk", etc. (Some of which I bought at thrift stores.) Doesn't mean I attended the college, it was just cool to have the t-shirts, especially at bargain price.

 

[cats5vegas]

I used to wear a lot of "logo" t-shirts when I was younger. "University of Santa Cruz","UC Berk", etc. (Some of which I bought at thrift stores.) Doesn't mean I attended the college, it was just cool to have the t-shirts, especially at bargain price.

School t-shirts are found in abundance here at yard sales, thrift stores and donation centers. Phys ed shirts are often donated or sold after the kid is done with the class, especially if they can't be used by a younger sibling. But, the shirt would most likely have stayed within the same general area.

 

[frankr]

School t-shirts are found in abundance here at yard sales, thrift stores and donation centers. Phys ed shirts are often donated or sold after the kid is done with the class, especially if they can't be used by a younger sibling. But, the shirt would most likely have stayed within the same general area.

Absolutely true. But it was just one clue that I had to try out.

Last night I contacted a few alums of the Don Bosco Tech in Boston to see if that shirt might have been from there. "Joe" never mentioned Boston, but it is worth a few emails to see if the shirt at least matches.

Kinda off-topic:
Also as I've read through hundreds of posts on Doe Network, Porchlight, and NAMUS, I've found that there are several clear categories for disappearances for males aged 17-37:

1) xxxx was last seen meeting someone to buy/sell drugs. foul play is suspected.
2) xxxx was last seen on a boat in the ocean/lake/river
3) xxxx is a known schizophrenic et al.
4) xxxx walked to the store, was at home, left work, and disappeared.

The circumstances are quite a bit different when then when I look at most of the missing women/children.

 

[frankr]

Here are three more that are remote possibles from the yearbooks. I can't find any of them in Facebook (although I can't read the name of the third guy).

<modsnip>

I don't think that any of these are the guy. H----- looks like he could be a much younger version of the same guy. D-------'s face is too long. The third guy's eyebrows are too thick. None of the others are even remotely close enough to bother with.

Joe H----- is a digital media designer at Disney in Glendale, CA., although I cannot find a picture, so it's possible that it's a different guy.

Joe D-------- is on Facebook. His profile is private, but he's wearing an "LA" hat, which fits.

I enhanced the 3rd pic enough to see that it is "Joseph K------" or "K------". In other words, there's just 1 letter there. I'm reasonably sure it's an "e", but not certain.

 

[frankr]

I got a follow-up from some Facebook messages that I sent out to alums:

Our colors were usually green w/gold lettering. However I didn't attend Bosco in the mid to late 70's. That could have been an earlier version.

He pointed me to another person.

 

[frankr]

I got a follow-up from some Facebook messages that I sent out to alums:

Our colors were usually green w/gold lettering. However I didn't attend Bosco in the mid to late 70's. That could have been an earlier version.

He pointed me to another person.

I've been unable to track down the man he pointed me to, but given that this school was in Boston and the deceased did not mention Boston at all, we may be at a dead end. As everyone said, this shirt could easily have been from Goodwill or another thrift shop. Any other ideas?

 

[CarlK90245]

I was tempted to send a FB message to J V--T----, but it's kind of tacky to send a postmortem photo to a stranger and say "Do you know this guy?". The drawing bears a fairly good resemblance, but not so spot-on that someone from 30 years ago would recognize him from the drawing.

I am also not satisfied that I got as thorough of a look at the yearbooks as I would have liked. I looked pretty closely at the Joes, but I only scanned quickly at the other faces. I just didn't have enough time. Also, the yearbooks were sectioned off for the different fields of study (e.g., Mechanical Engineering, Electronics, Construction, etc.) with all four grades in each section.

But I wouldn't want to go back there a second time. The librarian was a little creeped out by the postmortem photo, and he probably wouldn't be too willing to have me come in there again.

 

[CarlK90245]

I just went throught the other Joes one more time.

Here's another Joe from the yearbook that somewhat resembles our John Doe. His name is out of focus though.

<modsnip>

 

[frankr]

I was tempted to send a FB message to J VanThyne, but it's kind of tacky to send a postmortem photo to a stranger and say "Do you know this guy?". The drawing bears a fairly good resemblance, but not so spot-on that someone from 30 years ago would recognize him from the drawing.

I am also not satisfied that I got as thorough of a look at the yearbooks as I would have liked. I looked pretty closely at the Joes, but I only scanned quickly at the other faces. I just didn't have enough time. Also, the yearbooks were sectioned off for the different fields of study (e.g., Mechanical Engineering, Electronics, Construction, etc.) with all four grades in each section.

But I wouldn't want to go back there a second time. The librarian was a little creeped out by the postmortem photo, and he probably wouldn't be too willing to have me come in there again.

I'm still concerned about the school colors not matching, however, for my school, as long as you wore a grey or white shirt, the lettering didn't matter. Maybe they could buy a school PE shirt with several color choices for lettering, I suppose that is possible.

 

[Billylee]

I think the JD resembles this guy:


http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/santmyer_frank.html

Height is off a bit, age is good, and the JD is not as heavy. AND they both listed as cocaine users, so that could explain the weight loss for sure. Stayner was facing drug charges when he disappeared in 1977. But then, we have the blue eye vs brown eye thing here. Sure makes sense otherwise.

 

[Irish_Eyes]

Are we sure he was a student? Could he have been a teacher? Maybe he tought PE. He seemed to like physical activities. Someone who spent time in NY and LA was maybe working a day job and trying to break into acting at night? Just a thought.

 

[Irish_Eyes]

I'm wondering if his name was even Joe. His story sounds very strange. So he got robbed in Cleveland, was waiting for friends to bring him money so he could get to LA....so he decided to go climb in the park in Euclid? Makes nooo sense.