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

[ChatteringBirds]

John Doe now has a NamUs profile.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Does the "Case Owner" being
LSU FACES Laboratory tell us anything of interest? (Asking anyone who has a thought).
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

 

[Curious_in_NC]

Does the "Case Owner" being
LSU FACES Laboratory tell us anything of interest? (Asking anyone who has a thought).
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

I don't think it implies that BCJD was an LSU student, if that's what you're thinking (although maybe he could have been). The lab offers their services statewide.

From their web site: FACES Laboratory
"The LSU Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services (FACES) Laboratory provides forensic anthropology and forensic imaging services to agencies within Louisiana.
The Department of Geography and Anthropology has been offering forensic anthropology services since the late 1970's, however, a formal laboratory was not created until the 1990's. Our founder, Mary Manhein, established the FACES Lab in cooperation with Louisiana State University and the State of Louisiana in order to offer expanded services to law enforcement and Coroner's offices."

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I don't think it implies that BCJD was an LSU student, if that's what you're thinking (although maybe he could have been). The lab offers their services statewide.

Thanks. I have no thoughts at all; that's why I'm asking. I don't even know if it's common or rare for a laboratory to be listed as the Case Owner of an UID case.
I'm also very curious why it was finally decided to list him in NamUs. (I don't actually expect an answer.)

 

[Curious_in_NC]

Thanks. I have no thoughts at all; that's why I'm asking. I don't even know if it's common or rare for a laboratory to be listed as the Case Owner of an UID case.
I'm also very curious why it was finally decided to list him in NamUs. (I don't actually expect an answer.)

I see your point. I guess it is a bit odd for a forensic anthropology lab to own the case now since, to the best of my knowledge, we don't even know for sure yet where he is buried. So there's really nothing forensic anthropology can address yet. From his NamUs: "There are no surviving reports/records from either the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office or Coroner's Office"

 

[Teche]

I feel that it is a possibility that the police know who this person is, but do not release his identity because of his letter and asking for himself to be "cremated as a john doe." It is a (HIGHLY unlikely) possibiliy that his parents anded up cremating him and just releasing the other part of the information annonymously.

I’m from Louisiana and my son lives a few miles from Belle Chasse. I don’t think that many years ago, cremation was popular. Belle Chasse is right outside/across the river from New Orleans. It remains today a pretty rural area.

 

[Baudelaire]

Thank you for the update, can we now approach plaquemines Parrish LE?

 

[Baudelaire]

I’m from Louisiana and my son lives a few miles from Belle Chasse. I don’t think that many years ago, cremation was popular. Belle Chasse is right outside/across the river from New Orleans. It remains today a pretty rural area.

If you scroll back a few pages we found the funeral home that buried him. He is in an unmarked grave, but his remains are there and can be tested.

 

[Baudelaire]

Excuse me for sounding excited, this is a serious matter.

 

[Tony1902]

I sent someone who was a supposed contact an email regarding BC John Doe & Nassau Dr, Old Metairie Jane Doe. Still haven’t heard about Jane Doe but within several weeks LSU Faces announces they have BC John Doe. MOO? He’s been identified, family withheld name for privacy. Some parishes, especially after Katrina, had enormous difficulties regarding record files, which were nearly all paper.

Has anyone considered, yes I haven’t remembered, whether he could have been in a family stationed at the Belle Chase Naval Air Station? To the college question, Loyola, Tulane or UNO. Or he could have had a family member working at the Ag Station there, but that’s unlikely.

 

[Baudelaire]

I sent someone who was a supposed contact an email regarding BC John Doe & Nassau Dr, Old Metairie Jane Doe. Still haven’t heard about Jane Doe but within several weeks LSU Faces announces they have BC John Doe. MOO? He’s been identified, family withheld name for privacy. Some parishes, especially after Katrina, had enormous difficulties regarding record files, which were nearly all paper.

Has anyone considered, yes I haven’t remembered, whether he could have been in a family stationed at the Belle Chase Naval Air Station? To the college question, Loyola, Tulane or UNO. Or he could have had a family member working at the Ag Station there, but that’s unlikely.

Yes I checked the AFB angle, there was a Cousins serving there. I cannot remember how I did it because all military sites are closed. It wasn't illegal. I think i looked at the welcome to the base thing that showcases all the clubs and stuff on base for families and found a Cousins in some club for wives. Wife, ergo, husband. I checked a ten year period from 1960 to 1970.

So that's possible. Would it not make sense that a lab is the case owner because there is potential DNA?

They are correct that LE and coroner's office have no records, the only records left are burial records which we found. Now on microfilm with the church of LDS. The only other evidence is the sheet, his clothes and the jar.

Can we contact this lab and ask them to ask the funeral home to give them the location for exhumation and testing?

 

[Baudelaire]

I kinda think they just told us with no records at Police or coroner that it means they have nothing, the sheet and stuff is gone too. Another thing lost with Katrina.

 

[Grungster]

I sent someone who was a supposed contact an email regarding BC John Doe & Nassau Dr, Old Metairie Jane Doe. Still haven’t heard about Jane Doe but within several weeks LSU Faces announces they have BC John Doe. MOO? He’s been identified, family withheld name for privacy. Some parishes, especially after Katrina, had enormous difficulties regarding record files, which were nearly all paper.

Has anyone considered, yes I haven’t remembered, whether he could have been in a family stationed at the Belle Chase Naval Air Station? To the college question, Loyola, Tulane or UNO. Or he could have had a family member working at the Ag Station there, but that’s unlikely.

So someone told you that BC JD has been ID’d?

 

[Tony1902]

@Grungster
No, I have no information regarding that, it’s just my gut feeling that no one wants anyone looking into this. I suppose one could contact those 3 universities to see if a student didn’t return for the spring semester or didn’t finish it out. If they still would have those records or would , indeed, give out that information. I think the best guess, the naval base, is probably a good one.

Oddly enough, I went to undergrad with Mary Manheim. She’s not returning, or Faces is not returning calls or emails to me. I just don’t get how/why they ‘have’ this young man.
Hanging yourself from a persimmon tree in Plaquemines (Choctaw-persimmon) Parish shows some familiarity with the area.

 

[Tony1902]

Since this is an open forum, I’ll say no more. Feel free to send me a pm.
And I just noticed, I'm a Luddite crone, that the age is 16-17. Since there were no prep schools on the West Bank then, and the young man was was quite literate (haven't read suicide note) that would leave Catholic preps on East Bank: Holy Cross, St Martin, Jesuit, De La Salle, or secular--Isidore Newman, ridiculously expensive even then.

 

[Tony1902]

And, unfortunately, Mary has retired from FACES in the same year when they identified Mickey Schunick from Lafayette. I would love to know which coroner gave age date as 16-17, and why a teenager was never reported missing? JMOO..and why go to Belle Chasse, back of beyond, well no, that would be Point à la Hache. I have a feeling, Plaquemine Parish found/located or someone from there, and sent it to LSU. It's Louisiana...still slightly colonial in mind.

 

[Grungster]

And, unfortunately, Mary has retired from FACES in the same year when they identified Mickey Schunick from Lafayette. I would love to know which coroner gave age date as 16-17, and why a teenager was never reported missing? JMOO..and why go to Belle Chasse, back of beyond, well no, that would be Point à la Hache. I have a feeling, Plaquemine Parish found/located or someone from there, and sent it to LSU. It's Louisiana...still slightly colonial in mind.

I think that assessment was based on initial viewing by officers

 

[Tony1902]

As they say in the Ninth Ward of NOLA
‘They don’t be knowing.’—police assessment
I have too many questions, some odd thoughts, but I don’t want to hog the thread. Even for the lower parishes, oddly enough, this is too strange.

 

[JSolt1210]

Just a few thoughts.

My first impression upon re-reading the notes after some time was that this may have been an individual struggling with their sexuality or gender identity... Gender dysphoria was treated back then primarily by trying to force the affected individual into identifying with their biological sex, and I don't think I need to explain how that could drive someone to suicide.

I wonder if he came down for Mardi Gras. In 1975 it was held on Feb 11th. It was known to be big for gays to go to Mardi Gras. People wore costumes and hid behind masks and came from all over. Maybe something he had hoped for did not happen or maybe something did happen and he was afraid of completely coming out as it was not accepted then. Maybe afraid to shame his family or later on getting violently attacked and killed.

BBM.

That’s a very good point! I hadn’t considered that BCJD could’ve been struggling with identity and/or gender dysphoria, but it's certainly a possibility.

Now to combine this theory with the surrounding events at the time...

What if BCJD did come to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras? By February 11th, the celebration had been going on “for more than two weeks," and “thousands of visitors” were already there to celebrate. Even Paul McCartney and his wife were there, “masking as a pair of clowns.”

Is it possible that BCJD came there to find acceptance, but found discrimination instead? Sadly, our community is no stranger to transphobia. Just two years earlier in New York City, transgender activist Sylvia Rivera “was scorned, booed, and hissed at when she attempted to speak at that year’s liberation march, as the lesbian women who had the stage at the time did not want to allow a drag queen to speak.”

Sylvia herself recalled: “I had to battle my way up on stage, and literally get beaten up and punched around by people I thought were my comrades, to get to that microphone.” (emphasis mine)

Could BCJD have witnessed something like this, or experienced it personally? If so, how discouraging that would’ve been! Not feeling accepted by your family, friends, school, hometown, your own body, and now not even your own community.

Since the anniversary is just two weeks away, is there any way of getting coverage again in local media outlets? Or if that’s too soon, maybe on March 1st, when Mardi Gras falls this year?

 

[carbuff]

Wow, about time to put him in Namus. Though with all the information lost, I don't suppose there's much they'll ever be able to do.

I notice that FACES is listed as the responsible agency. I guess they listened to you at least a bit, @Tony1902.

 

[inmyhumbleopinion]

So I found the BCJD on The FACES Lab’s website. Here, it specifically states that dental records and DNA are not available at this time, but my understanding is that he is in an unmarked grave (the funeral home has records) and exhumation would not be out of question.

The page also has the names and numbers of the people to contact at the Lab to discuss this particular case:
Case #22-05 - LA Repository for Unidentified & Missing People