Texas’s GALVESTON — Police released a sketch after a body washed up on the west side of Galveston Island and asked: Do you know this man? This occurred two years ago. His face is still a mystery to this day. However, forensic genealogists now assert that they will locate him. On Mother’s Day 2020, in the middle of the day, the 911 calls started to come in.
The caller mumbled, “Uh, yes.” “I need to report a body on Galveston, Texas’ Kahala Beach.” A second caller was asked by a female dispatcher, “Do we know if it’s male or female?
The woman, who claimed to be calling from her beach property, responded, “I don’t know.” “People are now approaching and taking pictures, and I really didn’t want to look.”
No identification was visible on the man. He was dressed in black Calvin Klein briefs underneath generic black swim trunks. Officer Dannie Simpson of the Galveston Police Department provided the Unsolved team with previously unreleased images of crime scenes.
The men’s size 11 Under Armour slides that were fastened to the man’s hands, however, may have been the most significant detail of all.
According to Simpson, “He had been swimming and may have attempted to use those as a flotation device.”
The man had actually drowned, the autopsy later found. He stood at 5’5″ and appeared to be in his twenties, but who was he? According to Simpson, the U.S. Coast Guard advised him that the current that day might have brought him in from the direction of the Bolivar Peninsula.
The search for this man’s whereabouts awaited a call from someone who could be interested. However, no such call was made. Months then two years passed. A cold case was opened. Finally, the phone rang.
This, in my opinion, might assist me solve this case, Simpson remarked.
A scientist from Othram, a private genetic testing facility in The Woodlands, said that they could swiftly create a DNA profile for this John Doe. Forensic genealogists would begin their search for his relatives after the profile had been created.
Simpson believed it was worthwhile to try.
On DNAsolves.com, Othram posted the case for crowdsourcing. To conduct the testing, they would require $5,000. People from all throughout the nation gave over the past year. The case has now received funding.
According to Kristen Mittelman with Othram, “I know for a fact that within a few weeks, we’ll have a profile for this man’s DNA.”
Othram is unable to estimate how long it might take those genetic genealogists to track down this John Doe’s family.
Mittelman promises that “he will be identified, and we’ll figure out what’s going on. “I can’t tell you how many cases we’ve solved where the Jane and John Doe case sparked an investigation that resulted in a person being arrested and receiving a sentence,” the investigator said.
By the following Mother’s Day, Simpson hopes to have provided answers for a bereaved family: “Somewhere there’s a mother looking for a son and we would like for – to at least offer her some closure with that.
Texas’s GALVESTON — Police released a sketch after a body washed up on the west side of Galveston Island and asked: Do you know this man? This occurred two years ago. His face is still a mystery to this day. However, forensic genealogists now assert that they will locate him. On Mother’s Day...
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