RI RI - Block Island, WhtMale 21-26, UP12707, sweatshirt w/"MANHASSET DAY OF CHAMPIONS IX", Jan'92

[carbuff]

Found his mother's obituary: http://pillsburyfuneralhome.com/book-of-memories/1435670/Mominee-Pearl/obituary.php?Printable=true

 

[alllads]

Manhasset Day of Champions (original run) was started in 1978 apparently, so if it was yearly the 9th would have been in 1987. It sounds like a yearly event - and also if it was every two years, the 9th would have taken place later than 1992. The 1987 Day of Champions took place on Saturday the 21st of March 1987, and featured a match between Virginia and Hobart College (now Hobart and William Smith Colleges). So that's the earliest that UID could have died I guess (unless for some reason he got a hoodie before the actual event. So the Day of Champions took place at the high school, but wasn't actually a high school championship or anything like that back then I think. Or at the least, it did also include this game as part of it.

I'm slightly leaning toward this young man having been a serious lacrosse player at some point though - he has healed injuries to ribs and signs of stress to the shoulders, both of which make me think lacrosse.

 

[carbuff]

His Namus doesn't list any ruleouts but it says he now has DNA available.

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/12707

 

[carbuff]

Updated link: Unidentified Person Case

No ruleouts listed.

 

[WisconsinSleuth02]

Alright - went to Namus and did a tight-fit search - I found one that I think is possibly this JD.

William Hokanson, Jr. He went out on a fishing trip with his dad, William Hokanson and his vessel was lost in the Atlantic Ocean - He went missing in 90', so it's not that likely his body stayed in the searchable water - Their boat was found - but they are both still missing at sea.

Missing Persons Case

 

[carbuff]

A couple of links:

William Hokanson Jr. -- Lost Fishermen From the Port of New Bedford.

RI - RI - William Hokanson, 44, & William Hokanson Jr, 19, 25 Mar 1990 - Lost at sea

 

[WisconsinSleuth02]

A couple of links:

William Hokanson Jr. -- Lost Fishermen From the Port of New Bedford.

RI - RI - William Hokanson, 44, & William Hokanson Jr, 19, 25 Mar 1990 - Lost at sea

Thanks Carbuff!

 

[digitective]

Manhasset Day of Champions (original run) was started in 1978 apparently, so if it was yearly the 9th would have been in 1987. It sounds like a yearly event - and also if it was every two years, the 9th would have taken place later than 1992. The 1987 Day of Champions took place on Saturday the 21st of March 1987, and featured a match between Virginia and Hobart College (now Hobart and William Smith Colleges). So that's the earliest that UID could have died I guess (unless for some reason he got a hoodie before the actual event. So the Day of Champions took place at the high school, but wasn't actually a high school championship or anything like that back then I think. Or at the least, it did also include this game as part of it.
I'm slightly leaning toward this young man having been a serious lacrosse player at some point though - he has healed injuries to ribs and signs of stress to the shoulders, both of which make me think lacrosse.

More about the Manhasset Day of Champions from the Nassau County Lacrosse Coaches Association: "A staple of Nassau County lacrosse in the 80's was the annual Manhasset Day of Champions. Long before there was so much lacrosse on TV and social media, huge crowds would attend the event to see top level college games and the Manhasset boys play great competition."
Here's an article about it from the New York Times in March 1978: Lacrosse Pets A Special Day
It sounds like Manhasset High School would usually play another local Long Island high school team and then a couple of college teams in the area would also play.

 

[carbuff]

His Namus doesn't list any ruleouts but it says he now has DNA available.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

No updates or exclusions that I can find.

 

[UnlicensedPI]

"MANHASSET Johns Hopkins won the Division I lacrosse champion last season while Hobart walked to the Division III title. Perhaps the only difference in the two teams this season is experience. Johns Hopkins showed its maturity and guile yesterday when it outlasted the Statesmen's second-half rally for an 11-7 victory during the ninth annual Day of Champions. Johns Hopkins, ranked No. 1 in preseason polls, suffered its only loss last weekend to Syracuse, 11-10. Hobart, playing its season opener, scored three straight goals late in the third and early in the fourth quarter, trimming an 8-4 deficit to one goal..."
Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York on March 16, 1986 · Page 6

Johns Hopkins and Hobart played the Day of Champions IX. We should also be looking there for our JD.

 

[DS2021]

Bump

 

[VaggieX]

OK. Talked with someone about this and they agree and pointed out a few things I didn't consider and we came up with a few other things that lead us to believe he was a fisherman/lobsterman.

The snaps at the bottom of the coveralls point to a seaman, it would make it easier to put on and wear fishing boots.

The broken ribs and shoulder stress are common injuries for fishermen and lobstermen.

The bowlan knot (which I assume is a typo for a bowline knot) and rope, indicate he may have gotten caught in the bite (got his foot caught when throwing a pot, net or anchor overboard)

I have a sneaking suspicion this man is not listed as missing because while they don't have his body, his family knows what happened to him. People lost at sea off commercial fishing boats are rarely listed as missing persons. They search for a while and then eventually have a memorial without the body. I suspect the answer lies in news reports and coast guard records from the late 80s and early 90s.

I've tried to figure out the year of the lacrosse event to no avail, but I will keep trying.

I came across this entry on NamUs last week and couldn't stop thinking about it. I was hung up on the sweatshirt, but your comment made so much sense. (I apologize, as I initially tried to share my reddit post about this and have since learned that's not allowed.)

I found the website for the Lost at Sea Memorial in Montauk, and two names were listed who could have been lost in the right timeframe. Scott Gates, 21, lost on 11/20/1989, and Matthew MacKey, 23, Lost on 6/24/1990.

Both men went overboard while commercial fishing off Montauk - Matthew was 4 miles south of Fishers Island close to the Block Island Sound, and Scott was 80 miles off shore deepwater fishing for tilefish. The canyons Scott must have been near are directly south of Block Island, and the crew that recovered John Doe there would have been bottom fishing as well in January.

Per the article on his death in the East Hampton Star, Matthew was caught in a rope and lost overboard - the rope and knot found with the body could be the one that hauled him off the boat. The Star also reported about Scott - he was washed overboard by a wave, but the crew suspected he became snagged on a longline. "A 60-pound basket of bait could not be accounted for on the Endorphan after the accident and there is speculation the crewman became snagged on it on the way over the side. The weight would explain his fast disappearance."

As far as the sweatshirt goes, both men went to high schools 45mins-1hr away from Manhasset, though yearbooks show neither played for their schools' lacrosse teams.

John Doe's injuries - Matthew was a serious wrestler, competing in HS and then captaining the team at Allegheny college. This could have caused those injuries. He was new to commercial fishing, and this was his summer job. He'd only been at it for 7 weeks, not enough time for occupational injuries to occur and heal. Scott, meanwhile, was serious about fishing. He skipped school to fish and had worked on several boats in the area. He was frustrated at 21 that he couldn't buy his own boat yet, as he didn't have the credit. He isn't listed as playing sports in any of his yearbooks (and in fact, they only managed to photograph him his junior year - I bet he was out fishing on picture day).

Finally, the clothes. I don't think the layers of sweatshirts and pants and coveralls found on John Doe align with a June day fishing near the coast (I checked, and the weather out of nearby Bridgeport was 74F, high of 80, low of 64). But they definitely line up with a deep sea trip in November. Matthew's clothing wasn't described in any news articles, but Scott's was: "Mr. Gates was wearing heavy clothes covered by orange-colored “oilers" —foul-weather gear —but no life jacket."

I found more info on Matthew first and was really compelled, but now that I've read more about Scott, I really believe he could be Block Island John Doe.

 

[VaggieX]

Found a little more info for anyone else looking to solve this one. I'm not convinced the sweatshirt is the key, at least beyond placing John Doe on Long Island (and alive before March 1986), but thought this might spark a thought for someone else.

Manhasset Day of Champions IX was held on March 15, 1986. Hobart played Johns Hopkins that day.
Reported in The Herald, Hobart and William Smith Colleges newspaper.

It was a cross-division competition between defending division champs, so champion DI, DII, and DIII schools could have played against each other. I'm not sure if other schools competed that year.

It was a big spectator event. A news report in 1983 says that 4,000 people attended that year. Lotta folks could have walked away with the same sweatshirt JD is wearing - not necessarily a LAX player, or even devoted fan.