- Joined
- Jul 7, 2018
- Messages
- 36,961
- Reaction score
- 243,424
City police Detective Sgt. Dave Sweeney, who heads up missing persons’ cases for the department, and coroner’s investigator Theresa Gaetano are trying to find the identity... of a man who was pulled out of the Mahoning River June 29, 1980.
Gaetano said what makes the latter case more frustrating is the man was cremated two days after he was found by a local funeral home, and no autopsy was done on him. A death certificate lists his cause of death as “asphyxiation by drowning.”
Sweeney said the man was pulled out of the river just east of the Market Street Bridge. Newspaper reports at the time said firefighters needed grappling hooks to retrieve the man’s body from a set of rocks in the river.
The man’s pants were pulled down at his ankles, but authorities at the time speculated that the force of the water could have pushed them down. A newspaper account noted a crowd of about a dozen people watched in a downpour as firefighters worked to retrieve the man’s body.
Foul play was not suspected at the time. Gaetano said she had no explanation as to why an autopsy was not done or why the body was cremated right away. The coroner’s reports noted that the body was displayed at the funeral home where the cremation took place, but no one could identify the man.
There is no DNA or other evidence saved because it was before the age of DNA being used to help identify people, Gaetano said.
The man is described as a 5’8 white male, 50 to 55 years old, with brown hair and brown eyes. The date the man drowned could not be determined, but it is not believed he was in the river very long, newspaper accounts at the time said.
Authorities couldn’t use fingerprints to identify the man because they were not usable, Gaetano said.
Youngstown police, coroner’s office seeking help identifying bodies found decades ago | WKBN.com
Gaetano said what makes the latter case more frustrating is the man was cremated two days after he was found by a local funeral home, and no autopsy was done on him. A death certificate lists his cause of death as “asphyxiation by drowning.”
Sweeney said the man was pulled out of the river just east of the Market Street Bridge. Newspaper reports at the time said firefighters needed grappling hooks to retrieve the man’s body from a set of rocks in the river.
The man’s pants were pulled down at his ankles, but authorities at the time speculated that the force of the water could have pushed them down. A newspaper account noted a crowd of about a dozen people watched in a downpour as firefighters worked to retrieve the man’s body.
Foul play was not suspected at the time. Gaetano said she had no explanation as to why an autopsy was not done or why the body was cremated right away. The coroner’s reports noted that the body was displayed at the funeral home where the cremation took place, but no one could identify the man.
There is no DNA or other evidence saved because it was before the age of DNA being used to help identify people, Gaetano said.
The man is described as a 5’8 white male, 50 to 55 years old, with brown hair and brown eyes. The date the man drowned could not be determined, but it is not believed he was in the river very long, newspaper accounts at the time said.
Authorities couldn’t use fingerprints to identify the man because they were not usable, Gaetano said.
Youngstown police, coroner’s office seeking help identifying bodies found decades ago | WKBN.com
