Nameless man from Beaumont one of 9 unidentified bodies in Texas
Jessica Lipscomb
Feb. 23, 2012
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A man in his late teens/early 20s was found on a grassy median in Beaumont after a hit-and-run in 1998. He was never identified. A disposable camera was found on him and some were developed.
Courtesy/Beaumont Crime Stoppers
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In September of 1998, a nameless man died beneath tall blades of grass in a median on Cardinal Drive.
By the time officers found him, the body was too decomposed to detect fingerprints. Police theorized that he had been the victim of a hit-and-run crash.
The man was shirtless, though he wore two pairs of pants - khakis with denim shorts underneath. A disposable camera was in one of the pockets.
Detectives later developed the film, finding only two photos with people in them. In the first, three teens and a middle-aged woman sit smiling on a slip-covered sofa. In the other, a man with a mustache poses with a Christmas gift, a sampler trio of whiskey.
It was not until Tuesday, after the woman recognized herself and her family in the photo attached to the CrimeStoppers pressrelease handed out earlier in the day, that anyone had contacted police about the case.
When given details about the dead man, however, nothing about him seemed immediately familiar to her, officer Carol Riley said. The woman, who has not been identified, said the camera might have been taken from her car when it was burglarized in 1994.
On Wednesday, detectives were waiting to hear back from her. She had told the officers she would ask her family in Florida if they knew anything.
The unidentified man is one of at least nine other men and women whose bodies remain unidentified, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.