Identified! Canada - Laurentian Hills, WhtMale 28-40, 334UMON, eyeglasses, Sep'01 - Name withheld

[Vern]

I have been trying to find this John Doe for a long time. Part of the problem was my time parameters were way off. I am shocked now to see this UID case happened in 2001. I was looking in the early to mid teens of this century. Plus the actual picture of the deceased had been removed from the Canada missing case number and I did not recognize him from the artist's rendition.

It always shocks me that an actual photograph of an individual that exhibits no signs of decomp or catastrophic injuries doesn't result in an identification.

To me, it's obvious this man lived a comfortable life. He doesn't exhibit any attributes assigned to someone who may have been homeless, on the run, or engaged in a high risk lifestyle.

I've been examining his belongings and there are some oddities included in his knapsack such as a laundry bag from a high end hotel in Toronto and airline tags. Most things are expected for someone who may be used to traveling for short term business but engages in short term hikes no longer than 3 or 4 hours.

The lack of identification is a little odd but unfortunately, I can provide a real life situation that happened to some friends of mine who died in a motor vehicle accident in their teens. Three died and one survived and between the time he left his friends to find help some random individual stopped and stole their wallets and snorkeling equipment so that when the police arrived they had no way to identify them.

BS appears European to me, possibly of German extraction. There are lots of ethnic Germans in Brazil. Brazil would tie into an individual traveling through Central America on their way to the US or Canada. I just came back from Panama and a lot of the people on my Toronto flight were coming from Colombia, Uruguay and Brazil.

I'm trying to figure out why this guy would be in Blind River. It doesn't appear that a military or nuclear connection has been made so I wonder if it was mining. I keep coming back to that little pinkie ring he wore. People call that stone an aquamarine but it's unusual colouring of blue and green makes me think it's a rare type of tourmaline. Here's a picture of some stones similar to BS next to his ring.View attachment 237761 View attachment 237762
What makes the colour unique is copper. There were copper mines in Ontario, some near the area of Blind River. In 2006 a Brazilian company bought out Inco for billions of dollars.

Is it possible that this individual was on a business trip related to the mining industry and decided to
check out some of the area that had had copper veins back in the day. If he was only in the country for a few days it's possible that his family may have thought he'd gotten caught up in the tragedy of 9/11. Or maybe he was the perfect person for a job that entailed traveling the world because he had no family.

Branmuffin,

This gent was found in Chalk River, not Blind River.

There's about 500km between the two places. No links to vehicles, but Blind River is North West of Toronto via highway 400 then onto TCH at Sudbury and Chalk River is North East of Toronto via 400 and onto Hwy 60 at Orillia. Quite opposite directions from Toronto. The TCH would take him directly from Chalk to Blind River though by travelling west … or vice versa.

Interesting points on the rings and a possible mining connection. Mining is big in the Sudbury area as well, with only a 3.5 hour drive between there and Chalk River … a simple morning trip by Canadian standards.

 

[Vern]

RSBM
...
I'm trying to figure out why this guy would be in Blind River. It doesn't appear that a military or nuclear connection has been made so I wonder if it was mining. I keep coming back to that little pinkie ring he wore. People call that stone an aquamarine but it's unusual colouring of blue and green makes me think it's a rare type of tourmaline. Here's a picture of some stones similar to BS next to his ring.View attachment 237761 View attachment 237762
What makes the colour unique is copper. There were copper mines in Ontario, some near the area of Blind River. In 2006 a Brazilian company bought out Inco for billions of dollars.
...

On the ring, I just right clicked on the picture to save it in an attempt to reverse image search to see if I can track down any information on it's origins from the internet. It automatically came up in my "save as" as "tourmaline stone john doe blind river 2001". Did you name the file that or was it named as such by whoever caused the original to be released to the public?

No love with that attempt. Getting hits on Websleuths, the Unidentified wiki and the OPP site from 2015.

Deep River John Doe

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/opp-help-id-body-deep-river-1.3360989

So, nothing at all to advance the search for this man's identity. Sigh.

 

[Vern]

He was wearing Pepe Jeans; from their business wiki:

" Pepe Jeans London is a denim and casual wear jeans brand established in the Portobello Road area of London in 1973, and based in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Spain. "

Another possible nod to a "Spanish" connection - perhaps via Brazil. Mind, they opened their first US Store in 2001.

 

[branmuffin]

On the ring, I just right clicked on the picture to save it in an attempt to reverse image search to see if I can track down any information on it's origins from the internet. It automatically came up in my "save as" as "tourmaline stone john doe blind river 2001". Did you name the file that or was it named as such by whoever caused the original to be released to the public?


I named the image of the John Doe's ring for my own files.
No love with that attempt. Getting hits on Websleuths, the Unidentified wiki and the OPP site from 2015.

Deep River John Doe

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/opp-help-id-body-deep-river-1.3360989

So, nothing at all to advance the search for this man's identity. Sigh.

 

[branmuffin]

I named the file that for my own records.

 

[branmuffin]

It's too late for me to edit my comment #400 regarding the location of this Doe. I meant to write DEEP RIVER, not Blind River. I hope this clears up any confusion. Thanks.

 

[Vern]

It's too late for me to edit my comment #400 regarding the location of this Doe. I meant to write DEEP RIVER, not Blind River. I hope this clears up any confusion. Thanks.

No worries. I'm still googling vintage rings … rabbit hole

 

[sleuthaloop]

To me, the ring looks like a vintage black opal bezel set ring: example here. Black opal is known to occur in only two places on earth: Virgin Valley, Nevada and New South Wales, Australia.

I wonder if opal was his birthstone (born in October)?

Also, I'm not sure if the case reference which shows post mortem facial photos was linked earlier in this thread, so I'm including it here.

 

[Tabirey]

New to this thread and am curious as to why they have his shoe size listed as small? Replay is a fashion company that originated in Italy. As far as I can tell they have always sold their shoes with numerical sizing.

 

[sleuthaloop]

It's possible that the shoes were too worn to know the exact size. Most reports say "black coloured running shoes, size small (fairly worn)".

 

[Tabirey]

It's possible that the shoes were too worn to know the exact size. Most reports say "black coloured running shoes, size small (fairly worn)".

I didn't even think of that! Thank you!

 

[sunshiny day]

Deep River John Doe

 

[sunshiny day]

Paul Winston BYRNE

 

[sunshiny day]

 

[Ozoner]

Paul Winston BYRNE

There's no resemblance, Byrne was much taller than Deep River John Doe, and investigators in Tasmania have compelling evidence that Byrne was murdered and disposed of close to home.

 

[sunshiny day]

If you read the about article “Deep River John Doe”, it is mentioned at the end of the article in theory, he could be Paul Winston Byrne.

 

[branmuffin]

If you read the about article “Deep River John Doe”, it is mentioned at the end of the article in theory, he could be Paul Winston Byrne.

I personally believe that this UID is NOT Paul Winston Byrne. An incredible array of circumstances would have to be in play for him to be transported from Tasmania to Ontario's Laurentian Hills hiking trail. Considering LE believe him to be deceased makes it more difficult to believe. The Wiki page you referred to has an "X" beside PWB's name which states the lead was processed but turned up negative.

I don't know where they get their information from since Australian LE are fairly secure in stating that PWB was attacked and killed and his body disposed of. Forensic officials state they found plenty of forensic evidence in the home of his demise before the house burned down.

 

[Ozoner]

If you read the about article “Deep River John Doe”, it is mentioned at the end of the article in theory, he could be Paul Winston Byrne.

I did read that. I don't know who added that information or why, but it is clearly erroneous. Maybe it was a theory that was proposed before all of the information about Byrne was public.

 

[branmuffin]

I don't know where I read it but I've seen suggestions that anyone can update Wikia.org with information bordering on conspiracy theories instead of factual evidence. I don't have a problem with posters making suggestions about what they think happened, but I draw the line at rewriting history.

I did read that. I don't know who added that information or why, but it is clearly erroneous. Maybe it was a theory that was proposed before all of the information about Byrne was public.

 

[branmuffin]

It's maddening that this person has not been identified. I still feel this individual is not Canadian. I thought maybe mining was a lead, but nothing seems to gel. The military base seems a dead end so I'm drawn back to the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories. I agree with another poster that he may have been in the area because of the CRNL.

If he was a runner, then he really wasn't all that far from the facility. Maybe about 10 or 11 km, just slighting over 6 miles.

At the time, CRNL was producing medical radioisotopes. Apparently, Canada used to produce 40% of the world's isotopes for medical use.

I know some people who do triathalons and have done a couple of iron man contests. None appear to partake in performance enhancing drugs. I would think someone who is trying to enhance their performance would be aware that consuming a whole bottle of caffeine pills AND a bottle of diet pills that probably contained epinephrine could be potentially fatal. Especially someone of his stature: only 5' 4" and 130 pounds.

Another thing, judging from the autopsy photos, he doesn't appear to have any acne so why was he carrying a tube of acne cream? The active ingredient is resorcinol which if used excessively can have severe side effects that can be fatal.

So we have someone who consumed a bottle of diet pills and a bottle of caffeine pills and slathered himself with an ointment that could have potentially serious side effects. Was he trying to kill himself or did someone help him along using some fairly common items that by themselves would not point to homicide?

I also read that caffeine can really screw with the results of radioisotopes.