The height is off by an inch or two but everything else looks like this Daniel Sheppard should be looked at to be this young man. What do you all think?
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1466dmsau.html
Daniel Nicholas Sheppard
Missing since January 1, 1995 from Adelaide, South Australia
Classification: Missing
Vital Statistics
- Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 years old
- Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 165 cms (5'5"); slim build.
- Distinguishing Characteristics: Blonde hair; blue eyes. Fair complexion.
- Clothing: Blue jeans, a maroon denim shirt and black shoes.
I've only just started reading about the Grateful Dead Fan, and I don't know whether the possibility of it being Daniel has been ruled out yet later on in the threads.
I am 40 and live in Adelaide. My partner had met Daniel two or three times in the early 90s. I had him look at the reconstructions, and he doesn't think it is Daniel. He says the reconstructions look a little like Daniel in places, but in general they aren't anywhere near enough like him for him to wonder if it is Daniel.
When my partner met Daniel it was through friends who brought Daniel and another streetkid around to my partner's house. My partner's assessment of him at the time was "world's littlest and most annoying streetkid". My partner discouraged the mutual friend from doing this again.
At one of the times Daniel was brought around to my partner's home, my partner was playing some Led Zeppelin music and Daniel's friend was quite scathing about it and Daniel agreed with him. My partner got the distinct impression that they thought if music wasn't recent then it wasn't worth anything. Of course people change remarkably over very few years in their teens, so maybe he picked up a fondness for the Grateful Dead.
By the time he went missing, Daniel was apparently well settled into the sort of lifestyle that comes from living on the dole and smoking a lot of dope in Adelaide. According to all I've heard, much of the concern the police hold for him seems to come from him not having touched money that was in his bank account and not having contacted Centrelink to make sure his welfare payments kept coming. For someone who was getting paid every forteen days and then smoking it up regular as clockwork, leaving any substantial amount of money just sitting in an account would be unlikely.
If Daniel as he was at the time he went missing were to have ended up in America apparently free and at liberty and attending concerts with zero drugs in his system a few months later, that would have to involve both major personal change on his part and assistance from another person to get to America in the first place.
It all seems a bit far-fetched. Most of us here think he was killed by being thrown into the Port River by someone who took offense at something he said or did that New Year's Eve.
But it might be worth getting the police here to check the DNA. It is one of the higher profile disappearances around here, they might be willing to check on a longshot.