GA GA - Atlanta, WhtMale, 28-35, UP685, found in abandoned garage apartment, fully clothed, Mar'82

[hyoidbone]

(Facial sketch by GBI's Marla Lawson; 2009)
NamUs #UP685
Sex/Race: White male
Estimated Age Range: 28-35 yrs.
PMI: Days
Height/Weight: 5'11", 200 lbs.
Hair/Eye Color: Brown hair (fine and straight); eye color unknown
Clothing: pin-striped short-sleeve shirt; blue denim jeans; white briefs; white boxer shorts. Size 12 brown shoes were found on the scene.
Circumstances: Found decomposed on March 28, 1982, in the upstairs room of a vacant (abandoned) garage apartment. Fully clothed except for shoes, which were found at the scene. Type O blood was found at the scene. COD not disclosed.

The case is in the custody of both the Atlanta Police Department and the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office.

 

[iulia]

From Doe Network:

Cause of Death: Blunt trauma to the head

Dentals: Available. Broken lower, left, front tooth (#23). Wisdom teeth and upper, left, back tooth (#13) are absent. Teeth are tobacco stained.
Fingerprints: Unknown.
DNA: Available.

Several empty 1/2 pint, whiskey bottles were present.

86UMGA

 

[hyoidbone]

From Doe Network:

Cause of Death: Blunt trauma to the head

Dentals: Available. Broken lower, left, front tooth (#23). Wisdom teeth and upper, left, back tooth (#13) are absent. Teeth are tobacco stained.
Fingerprints: Unknown.
DNA: Available.

Several empty 1/2 pint, whiskey bottles were present.

86UMGA

The COD and whiskey bottles makes me lean towards an accidental death. Maybe he was drunk and fell, therefore hitting his head and breaking a tooth. Having wisdom teeth removed means he had the means for dental surgery.

IMO, his clothes feel like casual work clothes. I feel like he must have a missing persons report somewhere, or at least someone who anecdotally remembers a coworker who disappeared. I personally speculate that he was staying in the vacant apartment, perhaps raising the means to rent. Maybe not from the Atlanta area originally?

 

[hyoidbone]

These are two potentials I've considered. IMO, he may not have been from Georgia originally. Would love to hear other sleuth opinions.

Potential 1: Paul Anthony Lambert
-Missing since September 1981 from Louisiana.
-Fits ethnicity, age range, height, weight estimation, and hair color

Potential 2: Dale Wesley Visel
-Missing since June 1980 from Florida.
-Fits ethnicity, age range (at TOD), height, weight, and hair color

 

[justbrowsingiguess]

I'm leaning more towards Dale than Paul. Reports said Paul had a scar on his left eye, but it wasn't mentioned on the UID report. It's possible it wasnt mentioned or reported, but unlikely I feel. As for Dale, I see that more, but UIDs hair seems to be receeded more and UIDs jaw seems more narrow than Dales. Still, could be a match though cause it would have been 2 years since he was last seen. Let me know if you send out a report or potential match!

 

[hyoidbone]

I'm leaning more towards Dale than Paul. Reports said Paul had a scar on his left eye, but it wasn't mentioned on the UID report. It's possible it wasnt mentioned or reported, but unlikely I feel. As for Dale, I see that more, but UIDs hair seems to be receeded more and UIDs jaw seems more narrow than Dales. Still, could be a match though cause it would have been 2 years since he was last seen. Let me know if you send out a report or potential match!

Submitted Dale as a potential via the Doe Network. Definitely a super long shot, but worth the potential exclusion.

 

[justbrowsingiguess]

Submitted Dale as a potential via the Doe Network. Definitely a super long shot, but worth the potential exclusion.

Keep me posted! Super interested to hear what they say!

 

[hyoidbone]

Keep me posted! Super interested to hear what they say!

One of their coordinators emailed me saying the comparison will be presented to their panel. They haven't ever been compared before! Again, even if it's just an exclusion, it's still progress on a UID case that I want desperately to be solved. :]

In the meantime, it is definitely worth finding more potential matches.

 

[justbrowsingiguess]

That's great to hear! Keep us posted! Would love to see what they say and know for sure if he's excluded or not for potential future matches!

 

[JSolt1210]

I'm leaning more towards Dale than Paul. Reports said Paul had a scar on his left eye, but it wasn't mentioned on the UID report. It's possible it wasnt mentioned or reported, but unlikely I feel. As for Dale, I see that more, but UIDs hair seems to be receeded more and UIDs jaw seems more narrow than Dales. Still, could be a match though cause it would have been 2 years since he was last seen. Let me know if you send out a report or potential match!

Agreed.

According to the Charley Project, Paul Lambert's disappearance and possible death may be connected to a very specific set of circumstances and individuals.

This John Doe, however, feels more like he was just drinking alone in an abandoned apartment when his intoxication led to a fatal accident.

Then again, since this was an abandoned apartment, maybe the whiskey bottles came from other transients who were drinking there, so they're unrelated to the decedent. The blunt force trauma to the head could then be due to homicide either at that spot or he was dumped there from elsewhere.

 

[hyoidbone]

Agreed.

According to the Charley Project, Paul Lambert's disappearance and possible death may be connected to a very specific set of circumstances and individuals.

This John Doe, however, feels more like he was just drinking alone in an abandoned apartment when his intoxication led to a fatal accident.

Then again, since this was an abandoned apartment, maybe the whiskey bottles came from other transients who were drinking there, so they're unrelated to the decedent. The blunt force trauma to the head could then be due to homicide either at that spot or he was dumped there from elsewhere.

I think it's definitely worth looking at non-Georgia missing men for this case. IMO, the scene is not very permanent, if that makes sense. It would make sense to me that John Doe was trying to build roots in Georgia and stayed/visited there as an interum. But again, that is purely my speculation.

There's no mention of a wallet, keys, ID, or anything of the sort being found. Why would he be out without so much as a house key, if he had one? How did he get to the location?

I've included maps in my reply that I neglected to add earlier. On the left is what the building (specifically the garage apartment) looks like now. The right is an aerial view of the building in 1993 (the closest and clearest image I could get pre-2000). It's along a busy road, so it isn't unusual that he could've walked/hitchhiked/etc.

 

[justbrowsingiguess]

Doubt it, but wondering if this could potentially be Michael Carbonari then.

Micheal Carbonari: The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

This would fit the theory of our doe being a traveler, passing through since he's missing from Florida and would have been missing for two months. It's very well possible the doe could be from further, but i wanted to start with surrounding states at least. Now i cant say for certain that they look identical, but there's some similarties to me for sure which made me feel like i should include this. The only thing throwing me off is that Micheal's 5'9" but again with my searches i always do a +/- 2" to someones height, so it's plausible. Thoughts anyone?

 

[JSolt1210]

I think it's definitely worth looking at non-Georgia missing men for this case. IMO, the scene is not very permanent, if that makes sense. It would make sense to me that John Doe was trying to build roots in Georgia and stayed/visited there as an interum. But again, that is purely my speculation.

There's no mention of a wallet, keys, ID, or anything of the sort being found. Why would he be out without so much as a house key, if he had one? How did he get to the location?

I agree with these points, and it makes me wish we knew more about the condition of his clothes.

You mentioned earlier that "his clothes feel like casual work clothes." If so, what kind of a job were they suited for? Construction? Maintenance? Warehouse? Trucker? Office? Knowing this would help us narrow down places in the surrounding area that offered that kind of a job and work our way outwards from that.

Also, if he had a job, did he therefore have a place to stay? As you ask, did someone never come home from (or back to) work? Could he have recently relocated to Georgia, found a job, but was staying in this vacant garage until he saved up enough money for his own room? If so, I'd lean more towards construction or maintenance because those types of jobs don't often require a fixed home address, or notice if you don't come back, like an office job would.

Alternatively, could his clothes simply be from a cheap thrift store or charity organization? In that case, the clothes are not connected to him, suggesting he's a transient who simply had to make do with whatever clothing he could find.

Comparing the size of the clothes to the frame of his body could actually help us here. For example, would the size 12 shoes found near his body really fit his feet? If not, then this suggests he used them out of necessity because he didn't have access to shoes his own size.

Now, true, the shoes might not belong to him in the first place, but given the fact that he was found unshod, I think he likely wore them and just took them off while drinking. (And that, in and of itself, could tell us something: he was comfortable enough in that place to take off his shoes and relax.)

And lastly, does decomposition complicate things here? Like, he could've had a steady job and kept clean clothes—but if he died and decomposed in them, how would we distinguish them from the soiled clothes that transients often have to wear?