PA PA - Exhumation of UID male, 40-60, NamUs #UP16525, found in Caln Twp., Oct'87 - East Whiteland Twp., 25 Jul'24

[ifindedout]

Chester County cold case: Body of unidentified person to be exhumed 37 years after death

Chester County officials hope to resolve a decades-old mystery by exhuming an unidentified body discovered in 1987.

www.fox29.com

EAST WHITELAND TWP., Pa. - No name. No headstone. No idea what happened. Only tiny red and blue flags outline the grave site of a person only known as John Doe. The flags mark out the spot where crews at Philadelphia Memorial Park Cemetery, in East Whiteland Township, will arrive Thursday morning to exhume a body that was buried there decades ago.

"We don’t have any DNA on file, nothing was retained, so the entire skeletal remains were buried," said Chester County Coroner Sophia Garcia-Jackson.

Garcia-Jackson is hoping to unlock a mystery that started back on Halloween of 1987. That’s when hunters found the skeletal remains of a body in a wooded area off of Creek Road in Caln Township.

[...]

"We will extract DNA and submit that to the State Police who will upload it into something called NAMUS, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, and we can extract DNA to do the genealogy to see if there are any living relatives," said Garcia-Jackson.

 

[CCJD]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP16525
Male, White / Caucasian

Status Unidentified

Date Body Found October 31, 1987

Location Found Downingtown, Pennsylvania

Estimated Age Range40-60 Years

Case Information​

Case Numbers​

ME/C Case Number 87-49568 (CCC87-10-24)

Demographics​

Biological Sex Male

Race / Ethnicity White / Caucasian

Estimated Age Group Adult - Pre 70

Estimated Age Range (Years)40-60

Estimated Year of Death1987

Estimated PMI1 Months

Height 5' 11"(71 inches), Estimated

Weight 160 lbs, Estimated

Circumstances​

Type Unidentified Deceased

Date Body Found October 31, 1987

NamUs Case Created April 11, 2017

ME/C QA Reviewed--

Location Found​

Location Downingtown, Pennsylvania 19335

County Chester County

GPS Coordinates (Not Mapped)40.017147, -75.707506

Found On Tribal Land No

Circumstances of Recovery Found severely decomposed in a field just off of Rt. 282 (Creek Rd) between Rt. 30 Bypass bridge and Parkside Rd in Caln Twp. Estimated PMI of 1-3 months, no identification on the body. No trauma noted. Skull was used for facial reconstruction by Frank Bender in 1989 (plaster bust in care of Coroner's Office) and then all remains were buried in Phila. Memorial Park in 1989.

---

Details of Recovery​

Inventory of Remains All parts recovered

Condition of Remains Not recognizable - Decomposing/putrefaction

Physical Description​

Hair Color Brown

Left Eye Color Unknown

Right Eye Color Unknown

​

Clothing and Accessories​

Item

Description

Accessories
GREEN DUFFLE BAG DISC0VER AMERICA F0UND NEARBY
Near the Body

Clothing
WEARING BR0N LEATHER JACKET, WHITE SWEATER, BLUE JEANS, WHITE SOC LABEL IN JACKET SHERMAN LEATHER CLEANERS INC 895 BERGEN ST NEWARK NJ07112
On the Body

Footwear
BR0WN W0RK B00TS
On the Body

 

[CCJD]

From NamUs report printed on 3/11/2018:

Fingerprint information is currently not available
Dental information/charting is available and will be entered later
DNA sample is currently not available

 

[ifindedout]

Clothing
WEARING BR0N LEATHER JACKET, WHITE SWEATER, BLUE JEANS, WHITE SOC LABEL IN JACKET SHERMAN LEATHER CLEANERS INC 895 BERGEN ST NEWARK NJ07112
On the Body

SBMFF
The building which housed the cleaners at this address was demolished between 1984 and 1987. FWIW Nye Avenue, one of the corner cross streets, didn't exist until the mid-1970s when I-78 was built through Newark.

NETRonline: Historic Aerials - Viewer

Historic Aerial Photos and Maps

historicaerials.com

An example of a Sherman Leather Cleaners label can be found in the first search result below (it's in a forum, so probably not allowed to link to it directly)
r sherman leather cleaners newark nj - Google Search