I spoke at length to the trooper in charge of Mr. Bones today, and also to another source. Nothing the trooper told me was confidential so I will share pertinent info, and how I will go from here. LE in charge is a good person, pretty sharp, who wants to see Mr. Bones identified but has limited time to work on the case. I think we as a group can be of real use here. Now down to brass tacks;
They do have both mitochondrial and nuclear dna from Mr. B. They also have good dentals, and LE feels his dental work was not military.
Someone missed an excellent chance to ID Mr.B many decades ago by not pursuing the lead of the hard contacts further. Apparently not many sets of those were sold, and the records existed at that time as to who got them. Who knows where they are now, or if they indeed exist.
The isotope analysis is pretty expensive to do, several grand, and that is why it is not done more often even when it would be logical to do so, like with the Sumter County Does. Perhaps as the price comes down it will be applied to some of these old cases.
The trooper confirmed that the mess kit was indeed a Kiffe Kook-it.
Ms. Suzanne, LE in charge did call Boston about Jimmy Bratsos. They have no investigation open on him. The more you look into his background and circumstances of his disappearance, you can see why. The only way we will get anywhere with that aspect is to find a relative of Jimmy Bratsos who is interested in comparing dna. I don't think it is him but stranger things have surely happened. As I have said before, Bratsos certainly would have had enough reasons to be camping in the woods with a couple of boxes of ammo. He is a little short but ot extremely so, and heights can be off.
Thanks to Matt Levy in New York for running the story in their blog. Weldon Kees was suggested by a reader right off, but he looks small in pictures and the only estimated height I could find for him was 5'6". He looks to weigh about 160 in pix, and his car was found parked on the Golden Gate Bridge though no body was found. As we know, Mr. Bones was a big guy.
So here's where I am going with this.
1) I can't do any more with the Greenwich Village angle, if in fact there really was one and the proximity of the addresses was not coincidence.
2) I emailed the assignment editor of the USA Today this morning, suggesting that they do a story of Mr.B for Halloween. He never got national exposure, and that sketch (which is only from 2005) and the details of the case might jog somebody's memory.
3) I am going to try to get LE to run familial dna to find cousins of Mr.B. and maybe a likely surname. This is a lot cheaper to do than isotope analysis.
4) I need some relatives of Jimmy Bratsos! Anyone know where to find them? The Doe Network page (I think) said that the source of info was the family. Ms. Suzanne, thanks for this lead!
5) If LE will give me more info on the contact lens manufacturer I will see if records still exist. If I can find the haystack I am willing to go look for the needle.
If someone would take one of these tasks, or has suggestions, I'd be grateful. I'd like to form a team. We will serve as Mr. Bones's next of kin until we can find his real family. And we will.
