NJ NJ - East Orange, Essex County, BlkMale, Possibly LGBT, 20-24, 15 Feb 2001

[data_nerd_2005]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Namus : #UP1487

Description
Skeletal Remains found in an abandoned building. Race is listed as Black and age range of 20-24.

Clothing
Gold, green and white checked long sleeve shirt Green t-shirt White knit shirt Black Chaps, Ralph Lauren blue jeans Black leather belt with a white metal buckle Gray sweatpants Bikini type leopard print underwear Socks

Accessories
Found in the right back pocket of the pants is a blue paper flyer stating about a First Annual Teen Job Fair scheduled on Saturday, May 22, 1999, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, at Clifford Scott High school, Orange. On the back on the flyer is a telephone number "823-3770" and illegible names. Below the telephone number reads: uniforms 1 nail 1 Cigarette filter

Helpful Resource
The East Orange Public Library has pdf versions of the Clifford Scott High school yearbook available at the link below from 1990-2002. If the Doe went to the high school on the flyer, it is probable that they might be in one of the yearbooks from 1992-1999

Local History Department – East Orange Public Library

 

[victoriarobinson642]

Clifford J. Scott High School was a comprehensive community public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades in the city of East Orange, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States, operated as part of the East Orange School District.
Closed 2002
Clifford Scott High School - Wikipedia

 

[JSolt1210]

The fact that the telephone number is written without an area code I think is notable.

The decedent was found in February 2001, immediately before the introduction of three new area codes made ten-digit dialing mandatory for “northern and central New Jersey” on December 1, 2001.

Prior to that, you didn’t need to include the area code if you were dialing a local number. So, assuming the decedent is the one who wrote down the phone number, this suggests he lived in the same county as the phone number because otherwise he would’ve added the area code.

From 1997–2001, the area codes active in the surrounding region were:

732 and 908: for Union, Sommerset, and Middlesex Counties
973: for Essex (where Clifford Scott High School was), Passaic, Morris, and Sussex Counties
201: for Hudson and Bergen Counties

Using this information, the only result I could find was for a residence landline in the 201 area code, located in Bayonne, NJ, which is only 16 miles away from the high school in East Orange. I wonder if this is something LE looked into.

 

[Shamrock1]

Where’s the “possibly LGBT” coming from? I saw a white belt buckle and Tweety Bird necklace in NAMUS but nothing rainbow etc.

 

[data_nerd_2005]

Where’s the “possibly LGBT” coming from? I saw a white belt buckle and Tweety Bird necklace in NAMUS but nothing rainbow etc.

I found this doe via the transdoetaskforce map. My assumption of him being LGBT is based on the necklace and Bikini type leopard print underwear. Also, potentially the black chaps. Hurts that there are no pictures - I think that would help more than the description of the clothes given.

 

[data_nerd_2005]

The fact that the telephone number is written without an area code I think is notable.

The decedent was found in February 2001, immediately before the introduction of three new area codes made ten-digit dialing mandatory for “northern and central New Jersey” on December 1, 2001.

Prior to that, you didn’t need to include the area code if you were dialing a local number. So, assuming the decedent is the one who wrote down the phone number, this suggests he lived in the same county as the phone number because otherwise he would’ve added the area code.

From 1997–2001, the area codes active in the surrounding region were:

732 and 908: for Union, Sommerset, and Middlesex Counties
973: for Essex (where Clifford Scott High School was), Passaic, Morris, and Sussex Counties
201: for Hudson and Bergen Counties

Using this information, the only result I could find was for a residence landline in the 201 area code, located in Bayonne, NJ, which is only 16 miles away from the high school in East Orange. I wonder if this is something LE looked into.

I looked up the phone number with the 201 area code, and I was able to find the person associated with it. On their facebook, I was able to see that they worked at a company in Bayonne back in 1999 : I wonder if there's a chance the person was at the career fair. I'll try to look harder for old phone books, however, because I might just be sleuthing the new owner of the phone number, not the person who had it in 1999. If anybody knows of good websites to search old phone books, please let me know!

I sadly doubt that LE looked into this lead. There are almost no articles about this John Doe online ... I have to wonder if this is an instance where the area had high crime rate and the police didn't even try to bother to find his identity.

 

[data_nerd_2005]

I scraped the pdf yearbooks from 1993-2000 and got the names of all the seniors into an excel. Next I plan to google search the male names for any "missing" type posts. I am not sure which year to focus on first : the body was not found until 2001, but the flyer from May 1999 makes me think that if the JD was a student or recent grad at the career fair, he would likely be from the classes of 1997-1999.

 

[JSolt1210]

I looked up the phone number with the 201 area code, and I was able to find the person associated with it. On their facebook, I was able to see that they worked at a company in Bayonne back in 1999 : I wonder if there's a chance the person was at the career fair. I'll try to look harder for old phone books, however, because I might just be sleuthing the new owner of the phone number, not the person who had it in 1999. If anybody knows of good websites to search old phone books, please let me know!

Yeah if you're looking at the same website that I found (which I wasn't sure it would be appropriate to link here), then you'll see that several people have apparently gone through that phone number.

But the fact that the same NJ address keeps coming up might be significant. Like you said, maybe the person who lived there also went to the career fair, connected with our John Doe and, once they found out they both lived in the same county, wrote their number down without the area code. I think that could reduce the search area significantly.

Now, Bayonne and East Orange, NJ wouldn't be in the same school district, but would that matter if it's just a career fair?

 

[data_nerd_2005]

I have little hope that police did much investigative work to try to identify this John Doe. I just found the NYTimes article linked talking about how at the time the body was found there was major turmoil in the police department.

CITIES; Trouble Finds East Orange, Again (Published 2001)

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Essex County​

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If you have any information about cases or the identification of individuals, please contact: The New Jersey State Police at 1-800-709-7090​

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Unidentified Deceased Black Male​

Case Information​

The victim was found on February 15, 2001 in East Orange, Essex County, NJ.

NIC #	CASE #
U080001680	01-38257

Date Body Found	Estimated Date of Death
February 15, 2001	Unknown

Biological Profile​

Estimated Year of Birth	1976 - 1980​
Sex	Male​
Race	Black​
Height	5'7" - 5'11"​
Weight	Unknown​
Hair	Unknown​
Eyes	Unknown​
Scars, Marks and Tattoos	Unknown
CLOTHING	The victim was found wearing a gold, green, and white checkered shirt, a white knit shirt, black "Ralph Lauren" denim jeans (size 10.5), and "Puma" sneakers.​
JEWELRY	The victim was found wearing a necklace with a "Tweety Bird" charm on it.​
MISC	Full x-rays and dental records are available for comparison.​

Photo​

None available​

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Additional Photos​

None available​

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If you have any information about this case or the identification of this individual, please contact:
The New Jersey State Police at 1-800-709-7090.
East Orange PD (973) 266-5000

New Jersey State Police - Unidentified Persons - Essex County

nj.gov

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Bumping case up.
He was so young -- I hope someone cared about him and he was reported missing. It's possible the report was lost or that because he's an adult, it wasn't put into a database.
He could also have gone missing as a teenager from another state.

Has he been compared to any known missing men?

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

It says X-rays and dental records are available, but I wonder about DNA.

Based on dates and description, I wonder about:

NamUs #MP289, #MP6819, #MP923
#MP33530, #MP4192, MP20628, #MP6820,
#MP156, #MP756, #MP1237 (NJ case), MP12474, #MP9752, MP20329, #MP788 (NJ case)

 

[azure]

I found this doe via the transdoetaskforce map. My assumption of him being LGBT is based on the necklace and Bikini type leopard print underwear. Also, potentially the black chaps. Hurts that there are no pictures - I think that would help more than the description of the clothes given.

FWIW (not much) Chaps Ralph Lauren is a brand, the pants were black jeans, not chaps.