NC NC - Benson, Rudolph Jones Farm, BlkMale 40-50, UP2647, 'Florida' 'Marco Island' shirt, Dec'92

[aThousandYearsWide]

Case File: 1946UMNC
The Doe Network

Unidentified Male

• Date of Discovery: December 30, 1992

• Location of Discovery: Benson, Johnston County, North Carolina

• Estimated Date of Death: 6 months prior

• State of Remains: Not recognizable - Near complete or complete skeleton

• Cause of Death: Homicide

Physical Description
** Listed information is approximate

• Estimated Age: 40-50 years old

• Race: Black

• Gender: Male

• Height: 5'9"

• Weight: Unknown

• Hair Color: Black

• Eye Color: Unknown

• Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown

• Dentals: Available. #3: MB root exposed; #5: MO cary; #12: DO cary; #29: rotated distally for facially; #32: rotated misial to facial.

• Fingerprints: Not available.

• DNA: mtDNA and nucDNA available at UNT (ref #10-2852).

Clothing & Personal Items

• Clothing: Somewhat decayed blue sweater, tan shirt with the words "Florida" and "Marco Island" with swan heads on the front (size XL), blue pants, dark colored sweat pants (size M 32-34), tan swimsuit, dark socks, and tan high-top canvas shoes with no size identified but shoe measured 11 1/2" long.

• Jewelry: Unknown

• Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Case History
A laborer wandering through the woods 600 feet from a migrant camp on Rudolph Jones Farm at McGee's Crossroads stumbled on what appeared to be a pile of old rags. Brushing away the leaves, he found rib bones and a human skull.





Investigating Agency(s)
If you have any information about this case please contact;

• Agency Name: North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner

• Agency Contact Person: Clyde Gibbs

• Agency Phone Number: 800-672-7042

• E-Mail

• Agency Case Number: 93-4

• NCIC Case Number: N/A

• NamUs Case Number: UP #2647

• Former Hot Case Number: 1320

The Doe Network: 1946UMNC

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

Benson, BlkMale, 40-50, 1946UMNC, 'Florida' 'Marco Island' shirtnd near migrant camp, 30 Dec 1992

Word was cut off after adding the shirt description.

It said shirt, found.

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

Benson, BlkMale, 40-50, 1946UMNC, 'Florida' 'Marco Island' shirtnd near migrant camp, 30 Dec 1992

Word was cut off after adding the shirt description.

It said shirt, found.

Thank you! To the mod that fixed the title

 

[PayrollNerd]

The shirt being an XL and the waist of the pants being a Medium, make me think this guy was muscular at one time, or perhaps broad shouldered.

• Clothing: Somewhat decayed blue sweater, tan shirt with the words "Florida" and "Marco Island" with swan heads on the front (size XL), blue pants, dark colored sweat pants (size M 32-34), tan swimsuit, dark socks, and tan high-top canvas shoes with no size identified but shoe measured 11 1/2" long.

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

The shirt being an XL and the waist of the pants being a Medium, make me think this guy was muscular at one time, or perhaps broad shouldered.

• Clothing: Somewhat decayed blue sweater, tan shirt with the words "Florida" and "Marco Island" with swan heads on the front (size XL), blue pants, dark colored sweat pants (size M 32-34), tan swimsuit, dark socks, and tan high-top canvas shoes with no size identified but shoe measured 11 1/2" long.

That is a very good find! I totally missed that detail!

 

[PayrollNerd]

In McGhees Crossing, NC I found a strawberry farm and an orchard. If he was found by a migrant worker, it would not be too far of a stretch for him to have also been one. That would explain a muscular upper body. High top canvas shoes could a protect his feet and ankles from the crops.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

I can't find the shirt anywhere. Are they sure it was a swan on the front?

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

I can't find the shirt anywhere. Are they sure it was a swan on the front?

I found the shirt having swans a bit strange.

If it is a tourist shirt they might change the stencils/designs often so it might be hard to track the exact shirt (someone told me about this in a Missouri Doe case that was found with a Myrtle Beach shirt).

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

In McGhees Crossing, NC I found a strawberry farm and an orchard. If he was found by a migrant worker, it would not be too far of a stretch for him to have also been one. That would explain a muscular upper body. High top canvas shoes could a protect his feet and ankles from the crops.

When these are in season might give a time frame to his migration (if he is a migrant worker). Florida may have been one of his stops.

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

I found a unsolved murder victim from a few years later in 1995. His case file says something interesting.

"Mr. Gomez's murder occurred during a time when at least 14 robberies of migrant farm workers were reported to the Sampson County Sheriff's Department between 1994 and 1995"
NCSBI - Andres Cortez Gomez

Could this Doe's death have been a robbery gone wrong?

Also of note, Andre Gomez's murder happened in Sampson co. which is 45 mins from Benson where this Doe was found.

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

I found an article that mentions our Doe. It is about migrant workers unsolved cases in NC. It is really sad and some of these cases I have not heard of. It is very disturbing about the farm owners treatment of them in the 70's. I will try to get them listed on their own threads. All are in either Johnson, Wilson, Sampson, or Nash counties.

"The following cases are related to migrant workers or farms. According to the database:

• On Feb. 6, 1974, in Wilson County, authorities found the body of a young man in a barn.

• On April 20, 1978, in Sampson County, authorities found the remains of a young woman at migrant camp.

• On Aug. 15, 1978, in Nash County, authorities found the body of a young man in a pond on a farm.

• On Nov. 21, 1978, in Johnston County, a hunter found the body of a older man at the edge of a soybean field.

• On Nov. 18, 1979, in Sampson County, a hunter found the scattered remains of an older man near a bean field.

• On Dec. 25, 1982, in Nash County, a hunter discovered the body of an older woman at migrant camp.

• On July 26, 1984, in Johnston County, an older man reported to be a migrant worker was struck by two vehicles on N.C. 242.

• On Aug. 31, 1985, in Wilson County, an older migrant worker died as a passenger in a fatal wreck on I-95.

• On Jan. 10, 1986, in Johnston County, authorities recovered the body of a older man in an old migrant camp.

• On Nov. 26, 1988, in Johnston County, hunters found the body of an older man along a road leading to a migrant camp.

• On June 20, 1989, in Johnston County, authorities located the body of an older man along a swampy creek bank near a migrant camp.

• On Oct. 2, 1989, in Johnston County, a young man reported to be a migrant worker stepped onto Rural Route 1008 and a passing vehicle struck him.

• On Dec. 30, 1992, in Johnston County, authorities discovered the skeletal remains of an older man in the woods behind a labor camp.

• On Sept. 18, 1994, in Johnston County, a young man reported to be a migrant worker walked into heavy traffic on I-95.

Anyone with information about any of these cases is asked to call the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation at 800-334-3000 or call local authorities."

Migrant deaths unsolved decades later

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

I created a thread dedicated to these unidentified or murdered migrant workers

Violence against migrant workers/unidentifed or murdered

 

[PayrollNerd]

Great find! More details too. Someone was angry at the victim. I’ll venture to guess it was another male. The perp has to be strong enough to leave marls on the rib bones.

Being a migrant worker in eastern North Carolina has always been a dangerous job, but in Wilson and Johnston counties in the 1970s and ’80s, it sometimes meant murder.

Bones discovered in 1974, hidden beneath straw in a barn near Lucama, belong to an unknown man who died of a shotgun blast to the back. Someone stabbed another man so furiously that when a farmhand discovered his skeleton at a labor camp near Johnston County’s McGee’s Crossroads community in 1992, the ribs and vertebra bore cuts a quarter-inch deep, according to archived autopsy reports.

 

[PayrollNerd]

It’s good to see they have dentals and DNA. Being in a labor camp or migrant camp back then meant you were paid in cash. No SSNs needed, no bank acct, just a willingness to work. Literally off the radar but hopefully he had descendants.

I hope someone does their DNA and uploads it to GEDmatch and ftDNA. That way he can someday be traced back to his family. Along with the others on the list too.

• Dentals: Available. #3: MB root exposed; #5: MO cary; #12: DO cary; #29: rotated distally for facially; #32: rotated misial to facial.

• Fingerprints: Not available.

• DNA: mtDNA and nucDNA available at UNT (ref #10-2852).

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

Found another Doe that was a possible migrant worker found in a Florida shirt.

NC - NC- Benson, BlkMle, 1938UMNC, 40-60, found in shed, poss. migrant worker, Florida shirt,10 Jan 1986

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

Regarding Marco Island, I found there are migrant camps in nearby Naples FL; as well as, Immokalee. Other camps I found were further in Homestead, FL near Miami.

I did; however, find a farm on Marco Island called Inyoni Organic Farms but found no mention of migrant workers working there. No idea as well as to when this farm established.

"150,000 to 200,000 migrant and seasonal farm workers and their families annually travel and work in Florida. The migrant labor camp program currently issues over 700 permits in 33 counties ensuring that 34,000 migrant and seasonal farm workers, and families live in housing that meets or exceeds standards set by law."
Migrant Farmworker Housing | Florida Department of Health

Per Google there is 67 counties in Florida.

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

"The Florida Department of Health in Collier County, assisted by an 11-member Doctors Without Borders team, this month stepped up testing among migrant worker communities ahead of an annual migration of Immokalee farmworkers northward to work the fields in Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia or Michigan."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wa...rth-florida-other-farm-states/?outputType=amp

This is from a current article regarding workers and the Corona virus. So these are areas they likely migrate yearly. Could he be a Immokalee farmworker?

 

[Melt71]

Only one ruleout in this case.

 

[HopeRains]

Not finding any additional articles.