HI HI - Hauula, 'Barnacle Bill' UP6909, 19-25, SCUBA suit bought In Tacoma, Nov'82

[Laughing]

Ryo John Stanistreet just got added to Namus: Missing Person Case

He went missing at sea in August 1982.

Interesting!

NAMUS has no mention of a survival suit. Would a raft used for recreational diving be equipped with the type of suit found?

 

[MadMcGoo]

This is an interesting case. Never heard of BB before. I sure hope he can get his name back.

I tried finding a photo of Ryo by the way...no luck unfortunately.

 

[apearn]

Looking for a photo of Ryo to add to my facebook group, Missing Military Personnel. Appreciate any help to find one. Thank you!

No I dont have one. He has an unusual name so finding him on a yearbook site may be quick.

 

[apearn]

Looking for a photo of Ryo to add to my facebook group, Missing Military Personnel. Appreciate any help to find one. Thank you!

No I dont have one. He has an unusual name so finding him on a yearbook site may be quick.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

No I dont have one. He has an unusual name so finding him on a yearbook site may be quick.

I haven't been able to find any trace of him.

 

[Onfortuneswheel]

There's a picture of him in an Air Force photo review on the Internet Archive.

 

[MadMcGoo]

There's a picture of him in an Air Force photo review on the Internet Archive.
View attachment 279993

Great find! I searched high and low and couldn’t find a thing!

 

[LucyOso]

I have been looking at newspapers.com articles for missing sailors, overdue boats/yachts/sail boats, and other similar disappearances. I found quite a few that can be researched. Hill's Imperial Manufacturing for survival suits in the late 1970s-1980s has a "Penguin Club" for those who credit their survival due to these suits. I also found several references to downed planes/helicopters where people put on these suits as well. In looking at the "survival suits" back then, they were really this heavy duty dry suits, not the fancy Mustang kind of today.

Here is an article of a body located in a suit.



Missing in a suit

Penguin Club

Pilot

Misc. Interestingly, there were multiple articles of people with limited identity, aliases, just living their lives as well. It might be easier to track the vessel? Thoughts?

 

[LucyOso]

More

 

[LucyOso]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
Benjamin Logan Bullitt is missing from Seattle after falling from his boat.
November 25, 1981

 

[LucyOso]

Here's another... I couldn't add the whole article it was too big.

 

[LucyOso]

This...

 

[Laughing]

@othram , would it be possible to obtain a useable DNA sample from this decedent?

 

[othram]

@othram , would it be possible to obtain a useable DNA sample from this decedent?

Quite possibility. The case is in NamUs so we could check with them if a DNA profile was developed. If so, there is good chance we could build a genealogical profile and ID him. Looks like there is very little information known about this guy.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

Interesting!

NAMUS has no mention of a survival suit. Would a raft used for recreational diving be equipped with the type of suit found?

No. This was a Bailey Exposure Suit, donned when abandoning ship. Limited mobility, no buoyancy control, not used for diving.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

@othram , would it be possible to obtain a useable DNA sample from this decedent?

I don’t think they kept remains. I don’t know what Hawaii did with them.

 

[othram]

I don’t think they kept remains. I don’t know what Hawaii did with them.

:O

 

[Susikatze]

They kept tissue samples, though, but nobody knows where they are.... :/ and I guess they are full of formaline.

 

[Magnum P.E.]

I worked this case quite a bit a few years ago. No ID, no DNA, no prints. The only thing we have is the serial number of the suit. I tried to contact the successor to the manufacturing company and no one would return my calls. We felt, based on currents and the suit, that he was from a vessel in the Pacific northwest. That type of suit is intended to a) keep you afloat, b) keep you from getting hypothermia, and c) make you visible to rescuers. You will bob like a cork in it. It would be so unusual in a warm water area that the authorities in Hawaii did not even know what it was and called it a SCUBA suit. I went around and around with people on this forum about what it was and what it was for. I’ve been a diver for 42 years and have actually donned an exposure suit of that type. It is not easy. He did not come to grief while diving in Hawaii, that’s for sure.
I invite you guys to have another go at the serial number of the suit. It’s all we got. I wish you better luck than I had.

 

[carbuff]

I worked this case quite a bit a few years ago. No ID, no DNA, no prints. The only thing we have is the serial number of the suit. I tried to contact the successor to the manufacturing company and no one would return my calls. We felt, based on currents and the suit, that he was from a vessel in the Pacific northwest. That type of suit is intended to a) keep you afloat, b) keep you from getting hypothermia, and c) make you visible to rescuers. You will bob like a cork in it. It would be so unusual in a warm water area that the authorities in Hawaii did not even know what it was and called it a SCUBA suit. I went around and around with people on this forum about what it was and what it was for. I’ve been a diver for 42 years and have actually donned an exposure suit of that type. It is not easy. He did not come to grief while diving in Hawaii, that’s for sure.
I invite you guys to have another go at the serial number of the suit. It’s all we got. I wish you better luck than I had.

You did amazing work. I still think there must be some way to match his suit to his name, somewhere out there.