LA LA - Belle Chasse, WhtMale 16-17, UP88342, hanged, suicide note, Feb'75 #2

[Lexiintoronto]

I'm kinda late to this investigation but where did anyone find his dental records? in all of the sources about him I couldnt see any mentions of dental records or mouth scars, just slightly protruding teeth

The information is in this great post:

LA Post in thread 'LA - Belle Chasse, WhtMale 16-17, UP88342, hanged, suicide note, Feb'75 #2'

Feb 14, 2024

Bringing some of the links over from the first thread.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) UP88342

Case #22-05 - LA Repository for Unidentified & Missing People

Unknown “Belle Chasse John Doe” Unknown...

On February 14, 1975, a teenage body was found dead in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. He committed suicide by hanging himself with a bed sheet from a persimmon tree. He was about 16 or 17 years old and wore yellow and maroon shirt, blue pants, mismatched socks and no shoes. Leaning against the tree...

www.findagrave.com

Belle Chasse John Doe 3/14/75 1/2

Clipping found in The Plaquemines Gazette published in Pointe-a-la-Hache, Louisiana on 3/14/1975. Belle Chasse John Doe 3/14/75 1/2

www.newspapers.com

UP88342 Unidentified male 1975 LA

Clipping found in The Tennessean published in Nashville, Tennessee on 4/4/1975. UP88342 Unidentified male 1975 LA

www.newspapers.com

UP88342 Unidentified male 1975 LA

Clipping found in The Commercial Appeal published in Memphis, Tennessee on 6/18/1975. UP88342 Unidentified male 1975 LA

www.newspapers.com

...

• MadMcGoo

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[Notarobot]

I have written down that they won't reopen without consent from family, but since family is not known, it's kind of at an impasse. I think this was mentioned in the first thread on the case, if someone can locate it.

Maybe there's a way around it. If a relative of a potential match is found, could they give consent?

 

[Sweetluv]

Records were lost and this UIDs exact burial plot is unknown due to Hurricane Katrina. This is from an email exchange with FACES in 2024. There are a handful of young men I would like to see compared to this UID , but unless his remains are found, I dont know how this can be done. I find it interesting that this UID was one of Doe Networks "Cases of the Month" for December. If tips or suggestions were generated , then what!!?? My question would be, what will it take to move forward with trying to locate his remains for comparison to others? Has there been a search done ? What happens if a family member comes forward stating they think he is there relative? Im sure Hurricane Katrina hindered this case, but im not sure what the next step is with our suggestions....

 

[Hellandhighotters]

Has anyone mentioned the fact that he hung himself with a bed sheet? I feel like that implies that he lived close by.

 

[EloquentEyes1975]

Has anyone mentioned the fact that he hung himself with a bed sheet? I feel like that implies that he lived close by.

I agree, or if he had checked into a motel nearby? (I believe someone mentioned a motel in the first thread, one that would have been operating at the time.)

If he had traveled a long time i imagine it would be tiring & annoying for him to be carrying a bedsheet & a jar for ages state-to-state but then again i wonder if he could have used the bedsheet as a makeshift bag to carry the jar in.

It’s extremely unfortunate all physical evidence has been lost; it’s so frustrating, the thought that if there was any lingering DNA it’s just gone.
Of course, we know that Mr. Mothe knows where John Doe is buried but i’m not sure if Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Department are willing to try & get DNA from his remains. I hope that one day they will, i’m almost positive that if funds are needed many people from all over will be happy to help any way they can.

There’s so many possible identities for him; Bayard Cousins, Earl Anthony “Jay” Joggerst, Perry Corlew (and so, so many more, but these three i see so often).
Bayard Cousins has an absolutely shocking resemblance, and i think most of us consider him to be John Doe; but i always think about how many missing persons cases from the 1970s have been swept away with time, and i wonder if John Doe’s case unfortunately came to that fate. Or maybe he wasn’t reported missing… Maybe he was but police brushed him off as a runaway so they didn’t investigate further. Maybe his parents knew that he was John Doe and let him keep his wish. There’s so, so many unanswered questions & it leaves so many thoughts.

I hope that this year is his year; any starting action will be a massive breath of fresh air.

 

[lightofmine99]

Has anyone mentioned the fact that he hung himself with a bed sheet? I feel like that implies that he lived close by.

Or was staying in a hotel/motel.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Or took it from a clothes-line in someone's yard.
But you do have to wonder what he was doing there in Belle Chasse.

 

[cenazoic]

One of the many mysteries - where did the bedsheet come from?

Some people think he must have been local, based on the sheet and the obscurity of the location of his death.

I tend to disagree, primarily because his story was widely and frequently publicized in the months after his death, and no one local ever turned up to say “hey, that’s Joe Blow” or “looks like a kid that stayed at my h/motel” or even reported a sheet being stolen off a clothes line, that we know of.

(Jinx @ChatteringBirds !)


I can’t look it up now, but does anyone know if the sheet was ever described in more detail? Did it have any laundry marks? I don’t recall any reporting about the sheet other than its existence, so I’m not sure if they ever attempted to track down its origin.

 

[PatLaurel]

One of the many mysteries - where did the bedsheet come from?

The bedsheet and the shoes are what I keep wondering about.

MOO JMO

 

[cenazoic]

The bedsheet and the shoes are what I keep wondering about.

To me, the shoes are easily accounted for by assuming they were kicked off during his death throes. They discovered him at night, so if they went any distance they could have easily been overlooked. It wasn’t a crime scene, so probably not much, if any, searching by daylight either. I AM curious about the bottom of his socks (how dirty/clean, which might help make the kicked-off shoes theory more or less likely) but AFAIK that wasn’t reported anywhere.

The sheet, though, does imply some local access to such, as does the Mason jar. As far as I know the police never reported a bag of any kind, so you get an image of him walking down a pretty rural road on a Friday evening with a sheet and jar in hand, yet no one other than the couple who found him that night ever reported seeing such a character, or giving a ride to him, etc.

 

[Teche]

I agree, or if he had checked into a motel nearby? (I believe someone mentioned a motel in the first thread, one that would have been operating at the time.)

If he had traveled a long time i imagine it would be tiring & annoying for him to be carrying a bedsheet & a jar for ages state-to-state but then again i wonder if he could have used the bedsheet as a makeshift bag to carry the jar in.

It’s extremely unfortunate all physical evidence has been lost; it’s so frustrating, the thought that if there was any lingering DNA it’s just gone.
Of course, we know that Mr. Mothe knows where John Doe is buried but i’m not sure if Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Department are willing to try & get DNA from his remains. I hope that one day they will, i’m almost positive that if funds are needed many people from all over will be happy to help any way they can.

There’s so many possible identities for him; Bayard Cousins, Earl Anthony “Jay” Joggerst, Perry Corlew (and so, so many more, but these three i see so often).
Bayard Cousins has an absolutely shocking resemblance, and i think most of us consider him to be John Doe; but i always think about how many missing persons cases from the 1970s have been swept away with time, and i wonder if John Doe’s case unfortunately came to that fate. Or maybe he wasn’t reported missing… Maybe he was but police brushed him off as a runaway so they didn’t investigate further. Maybe his parents knew that he was John Doe and let him keep his wish. There’s so, so many unanswered questions & it leaves so many thoughts.

I hope that this year is his year; any starting action will be a massive breath of fresh air.

What did the jar contain?

 

[EloquentEyes1975]

What did the jar contain?

The jar only contained the notes/his final letter.

“His desire for anonymity did not prevent the youth from attempting to explain his reasons for taking his life to his parents in a four-page note, which he took care to seal in a jar to keep out the dew.”

 

[PatLaurel]

What did the jar contain?

Not the OP but, it contained the four-page note. Our JD clearly wanted to preserve it, placing it carefully so that his words wouldn’t be blurred by the night dew.

MOO JMO

 

[Romulus]

To me, the shoes are easily accounted for by assuming they were kicked off during his death throes. They discovered him at night, so if they went any distance they could have easily been overlooked. It wasn’t a crime scene, so probably not much, if any, searching by daylight either. I AM curious about the bottom of his socks (how dirty/clean, which might help make the kicked-off shoes theory more or less likely) but AFAIK that wasn’t reported anywhere.

The sheet, though, does imply some local access to such, as does the Mason jar. As far as I know the police never reported a bag of any kind, so you get an image of him walking down a pretty rural road on a Friday evening with a sheet and jar in hand, yet no one other than the couple who found him that night ever reported seeing such a character, or giving a ride to him, etc.

It's not certain that whoever gave him the ride was silent... there could be many explanations, for example: the shoes could have been thrown into the water somewhere... and never found.

 

[C3LEST1AL]

Was there any devensive wounds? And where did the bedsheet come from? Did he live nearby or was there a motel or hotel near?

 

[snooptroop88]

That "DD" on the cleaning number in the pants made me wonder a lot. I started looking up different locations in that general area, there is a Xavier University of Louisiana on Drexel Drive in New Orleans. It's an historic black college, and it's historically the only black and Catholic college in the US. This got me to wondering if this Doe's Creole, and (speculating) might never have been reported missing because of distrust of LE in the 70s. The Doe himself is making it clear he doesn't want LE involved.

And continue to have a nagging fear of staged suicide. I don't see the point of the young man writing any messages to the mother & father if the young man really didn't want LE to locate them at all. He not only withheld contact information for them, but also actively requested that LE not seek them out. If LE complies, the message to the mother and father would never be received, and what was intended to be his inner-most thoughts for parents is going to be divulged to LE and (fairly likely) in media. So why bother writing it? And why would he want the parents living the rest of their lives in the hopes of his return when he's making any return an impossibility? This "don't contact anyone," don't look for any information... maybe it did coincide with what he wanted, but maybe it's actually what someone else wanted, and for very sinister purposes.

As another note, there are a good number of RV parks in the area, from what I can see. If he abandoned some vehicle somewhere in that timeframe, don't know they'd have traced it to him because of what would be for LE a pretty oblique connection, and perhaps the vehicle would not even be in his name. Moreover, I doubt they required the type of documentation checking into those parks that they do today. There's also the possibility that he had a bicycle, and that it was left somewhere at too much of a distance from where his body was found to make the connection. And returning to that "DD" on the clothing cleaning number, have wondered about Dept of Defense (strong military presence in the area), or maybe "detention" somewhere. The Louisiana Training Institute-Bridge City (a juvenile detention facility) near New Orleans opened in 1972.

RIP.