MO - Dr. Tatjana Kopric, 35, Kansas City, 18 September 1980

[mothwings]

That's how you spell it in Serbo-Croatian. Jugoslavia.

In a lot European languages, which don't have the letter Y, the J is always pronounced like a Y.

Like Ja (yes) in German, pronounced 'Ya'.

<modsnip> He must have copied it from Tanya's unsent letter.

 

[dotr]

Inverness forensic artist could help solve 41-year-old Stateside murder mystery

An Inverness forensic artist could hold the key to solving a notorious Stateside murder riddle. Hew Morrison is world-renowned thanks to his facial

www.pressandjournal.co.uk

2021
''Pharmacy student Richard Bocklage went on the run in September 1980 after slaying fiancée Dr Tanya Kopric in a car park in Kansas City.

He was recognised by several eyewitness, and his abandoned car was found in Canada shortly afterward. He has a capital murder rap on his head- but where is he now?''

''Forensic artist Hew Morrison created this aged image of murderer Richard Bocklage at 65.''

Richard Bocklage as a teenager in 1972,1974 and 1975

 

[mothwings]

Possible match? I wonder what suggests that he had extreme fever. The hair, nose, and eyebrows appear to be spot on.View attachment 364032

I sent this in to the agency in charge of the case a week ago. No reply. Not sure how they will ever prove it's him without dental records. Would one of his family members have to give DNA?

The only thing that doesn't match is the height. Richard was between 6' 0'' and 6' 2''. This Bow River UID is said to be 5' 8'' max. It's not unheard of for a match's height to be off a little but who knows.

The shirt the Bow River John Doe was found in with that kind of collar is Bocklage's style. Also strikingly similar is the divet between the nasal procerus and forehead.

 

[annemc2]

@mothwings I spent a looong time once trying to track down how a ME can tell that a person might have had a severe fever as a young child. It was frustrating because the search terms didn't want to play nicely. But dang if I don't remember why and I'm getting frustrated trying to find it again! IIRC it has to do with some sort of marking or discoloration of the teeth.

 

[Laughing]

@mothwings I spent a looong time once trying to track down how a ME can tell that a person might have had a severe fever as a young child. It was frustrating because the search terms didn't want to play nicely. But dang if I don't remember why and I'm getting frustrated trying to find it again! IIRC it has to do with some sort of marking or discoloration of the teeth.

Well, lookkee here, you're spot on:

A systemic condition during tooth development, such as high fever, can produce a pattern of enamel defects in the dentition. Knowing the timing of tooth development permits estimates about the timing of the disturbance.

Dental enamel formation and its impact on clinical dentistry - PubMed

The nature of tooth enamel is of inherent interest to dental professionals. The current-day clinical practice of dentistry involves the prevention of enamel demineralization, the promotion of enamel remineralization, the restoration of cavitated enamel where demineralization has become...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[mothwings]

Well, lookkee here, you're spot on:

A systemic condition during tooth development, such as high fever, can produce a pattern of enamel defects in the dentition. Knowing the timing of tooth development permits estimates about the timing of the disturbance.

Dental enamel formation and its impact on clinical dentistry - PubMed

The nature of tooth enamel is of inherent interest to dental professionals. The current-day clinical practice of dentistry involves the prevention of enamel demineralization, the promotion of enamel remineralization, the restoration of cavitated enamel where demineralization has become...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Thanks for that. I never heard back from the agency in charge of the Bow River John Doe. However, I have since noticed a major discrepancy in height between Bocklage and this John Doe. So it is unlikely it is him. Plus, it seems they would have found missing sweat glands or surgical scars under the underarms.

 

[AlexFromnic]

Possible match? I wonder what suggests that he had extreme fever. The hair, nose, and eyebrows appear to be spot on.View attachment 364032

Not a realistic match. The reconstruction looks great actually but so many people kinda look like that. Things that don't seem to fit is the deceased is listed at 5"2 to 5"8 and Richard was 6'. Also Richards car was found in Thompson Canada and the deceased was found a 16 hour drive away. I think it's possible maybe they got the height way wrong and who knows maybe right? But I would keep looking.

 

[mothwings]

Not a realistic match. The reconstruction looks great actually but so many people kinda look like that. Things that don't seem to fit is the deceased is listed at 5"2 to 5"8 and Richard was 6'. Also Richards car was found in Thompson Canada and the deceased was found a 16 hour drive away. I think it's possible maybe they got the height way wrong and who knows maybe right? But I would keep looking.

Right, I've since decided this likely is not him, not just because of the height but it is likely the autopsy would have noted the missing sweat glands/surgical scars. Beyond that, this UID has disappeared from all reliable sources. I don't think he made it far from where he ditched his car and I've looked at just about every potential match in Canada. If Bocklage is a UID somewhere, I'm not sure how we'd ever identify it without a family member's DNA or dental records.

 

[dotr]

2021 re-post refresher..
By Susy Macaulay

Inverness forensic artist could help solve 41-year-old Stateside murder mystery

An Inverness forensic artist could hold the key to solving a notorious Stateside murder riddle. Hew Morrison is world-renowned thanks to his facial

www.pressandjournal.co.uk

Forensic artist Hew Morrison created this aged image of murderer Richard Bocklage at 65.

''Richard Gerard Bocklage was born on July 12 1957 in the St Louis suburb of Alton to parents Patricia and Vincent Bocklage.

Logan says he and his sister, born a few years later, grew up comfortably in an ‘All-American’ family, with his first cousin remembering him as ‘a very sweet and precocious small child, very normal and kind’.

Richard Bocklage as a teenager in 1972,1974 and 1975
“His sweat glands were removed and left vertical scars under his armpits, which would later be a pertinent detail in his identity.”

Bocklage’s signature.

 

[mothwings]

So many fugitives are now on NAMUS with DNA and dental available. They haven't bothered getting Bocklage on NAMUS though. I wonder why?

 

[annemc2]

He has such characteristic teeth. It seems like he'd be pretty recognizable when he's gotten older and lost some facial fat/volume. But who is actively looking for him? The case doesn't have that much recent publicity.

 

[mothwings]

He has such characteristic teeth. It seems like he'd be pretty recognizable when he's gotten older and lost some facial fat/volume. But who is actively looking for him? The case doesn't have that much recent publicity.

More like zero publicity since the short segment on America's Most Wanted in 2001.

It's incredibly sad Tanya is not on the Kansas City Police Department's official webpage for Unsolved Homicides or Cold Cases.

 

[mothwings]

I still think there's a strong possibility this could be him.

Discrepancies in height can and do happen. If he was decomposing in the Bow River long enough that they couldn't for sure make out his eye color, then perhaps the missing sweat glands would go unnoticed too.

A note and comb was found on him. Richard was always combing his hair. Richard was also constantly leaving notes. There's also that inward indent between his nose and forehead which is an exact replica of the area between Bocklage's eyebrows. Not many people have that.

There's no information to say Bocklage had extensive dental work by age 23 but who knows? His teeth seemed pretty well kept.

They both appear to be wearing dress shirts too.

The fact he was found 16-hours away from where he abandoned the car doesn't carry much weight against the possibility that this is Bocklage because he certainly could have made it to Lake Louise by 1984-85.

Bocklage was also a fisher.

 

[mothwings]

This week marked 45-years since Tanya was murdered. There's someone who has a very elusive Facebook profile and looks exactly like Bocklage. Obviously, I can't post it here but I think there's a strong likelihood it's Bocklage under an alias. I've looked at THOUSANDS of social media profiles connected to things Bocklage was interested in—snakes, gold mines, schools of medicine, hyperhidrosis recovery pages, groups surrounding the area where his car was found—and I keep coming back to this one profile. One things for sure, that Facebook user is hiding something about his background. Seems like a homeless person and I always thought there was a good chance Bocklage fell in with the homeless community somewhere in Canada.

I hope he will slip up one day. Such a brutal, evil crime.