IL IL – White Pines John Doe, Chicago Heights creek, WhtMale, Adult 5’0–5’3, UP120276, Feb’24

[itsdev]

NamUs Case: UP120276
ME/C Case Number: ME2024-00674

Circumstances
Date Found: February 2, 2024
Location: Creek near Joe Orr Road and State Street, Chicago Heights, Cook County, Illinois

Physical Description

• Sex: Male
• Race: White / Caucasian
• Estimated age group: Adult
• Height: 5' 0"-5' 3", Estimated
• Weight: 183 pounds (measured)
• Hair: Black
• Eyes: Irides described as dark, exact color unknown
• Distinctive features: None documented

Details of Recovery
Condition: Not recognizable - Decomposing/putrefaction
Inventory of remains: All parts recovered

Circumstances of Recovery
The decedent was recovered from a creek bed after being in the water for some time. Subject was discovered in a creek near Joe Orr Road and State Street in Chicago Heights IL.

Clothing (image below)

• Long sleeve shirt with “Bears”
• Short sleeve t-shirt reading “White Pines Ranch Oregon, IL”
• Dark gray or black hooded- zip up jacket.
• Denim pants Size: 34x30
• Dark zipper jacket w/ white star liner. Brand: TIMING, Size: M.

Cause & Manner
Cause: Drowning
Manner: Undetermined
Source: The Medical Examiners Case Archive lists: Search: ME2024-00674

No exclusions listed

Contacts
Illinois State Police - District 3
(847) 294-4537
Agency Case Number
24-4182750007
No Investigator Entered

Cook County Medical Examiner's Office
(312) 997-4500
Agency Case Number
ME2024-00674
No Investigator Entered

Sources:
Namus
Cook County Medical Examiners Case Archive

Personal note
I am close with employees of White Pines Ranch and my husband was a counselor there many years ago. I mentioned this case to them and detectives had already been in contact with them and I have shared the artist rendering with them once it came out but so far, no one has recognized him. The Ranch gets many campers every year and many of the kids are from the Chicagoland area. They have also had that exact shirt design for I believe they said 10+ years or so.

Uploaded: January 12, 2026
Skeletal Composite by NamUs Forensic Artist Eve Grant - UP120276

*Location
Although the specific waterway is not named in the NamUs record, based on the stated crossroads of Joe Orr Road and State Street and local geography, the creek involved would most likely be Thorn Creek, which runs through this area of Chicago Heights. This is not explicitly stated in official documentation and should be treated as a geographic inference. If anyone local to the area can confirm whether Thorn Creek or a tributary is present at that location, clarification would be helpful.

 

[snooptroop88]

He may have been staying at one of the homeless shelters in the Chicago Heights area and if so, he may have come by the shirt through thrift shop or at the shelter. Some of these shelters will have a sort of network of cooperating/assisting locations throughout the overall area. When not physically in the shelter or these satellite locations, people from the shelters may tend to frequent the nearby forest preserves, walk through there, sleep there (entrance is quite close to the shelter) and also congregate and travel along the railroad tracks. As I'm streetviewing Joe Orr Road and State now, I'm navigating along State, and I see both railroad tracks nearby and more dense foliage, perhaps (?) wooded. See a Glenwood Creek Road, I'm not sure how close that would be potentially to any body of water, and I see a bridge over Deer Creek not all that far off. But looking at the maps and assuming (?) the route he was following was through the forest preserves, Thorn Creek seems most likely, agreed. Seeing that Deer Creek does also flow either through or extremely near to Chicago Heights and is part of the Thorn Creek watershed, and Deer Creek flows into Thorn Creek. There was a significant drug bust last month along the Lincoln Highway (the road along which at least one Chicago Heights shelter's located) and Deer Creek Trail in Ford Heights (which used to be known as East Chicago Heights).

Chicago Heights has a depressed economy and recognized high crime rates.