PA PA - Elizabethtown, 'Masonic Homes Hunchback', WhtMale 30-60, UP10751, humpback, clothes, Nov'12

[MadMcGoo]

Did you submit Currier, @MadMcGoo? There are a lot of close similarities and nothing I can see to rule it out. The presence of the similar medical condition makes it a very strong possibility.

Keyes might have left husband and wife in different locations and her remains just haven't been found yet. Considering how careful his planning was, he might have rented yet another car to move them far from where anybody would be looking.

It seems like I did... I think. I’ll have to go back through my emails and check. If I did submit, I never got a response...

I briefly looked through UID females to see if anyone matched her description, but didn’t find anything particularly promising. But this has been almost 6 months ago. When I get a chance I’ll try to submit if I didn’t previously...unless someone here beats me to it

 

[carbuff]

It seems like I did... I think. I’ll have to go back through my emails and check. If I did submit, I never got a response...

I briefly looked through UID females to see if anyone matched her description, but didn’t find anything particularly promising. But this has been almost 6 months ago. When I get a chance I’ll try to submit if I didn’t previously...unless someone here beats me to it

I definitely didn't find any females in the same area this man was discovered in, but I didn't look between this location and where the car was found.

 

[MarziPanda]

Now a DNA Doe Project case: Masonic Village John Doe 2012

 

[John/Jane Doe]

https://www.facebook.com/100068121797204/posts/628385866108801

 

[Richrd]

.
IDENTIFIED

PA - UP10751 - WhtMale - Elizabethtown, West Donegal Township, Lancaster County - 2012 ***Mitchell L. Mendelson, 60***​

Coroner's office identifies skeletal remains found in West Donegal Township in 2012

The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office said Monday it has identified skeletal remains found in West Donegal Township in 2012, and they are those of a former Elizabethtown man.

lancasteronline.com

.

 

[HmmMysterious]

.
IDENTIFIED

PA - Elizabethtown, 'Masonic Homes Hunchback', WhtMale 30-60, UP10751, humpback, clothes, Nov'12​

Coroner's office identifies skeletal remains found in West Donegal Township in 2012

The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office said Monday it has identified skeletal remains found in West Donegal Township in 2012, and they are those of a former Elizabethtown man.

lancasteronline.com

.

Rest in peace Mitchell L Mendelson. 60 years old at the time of his death.

Apparently, Mitchell moved to Elizabethtown from Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 2011. I wonder why it took so long to put two and two together.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

.
IDENTIFIED

PA - UP10751 - WhtMale - Elizabethtown, West Donegal Township, Lancaster County - 2012 ***Mitchell L. Mendelson, 60***​

Coroner's office identifies skeletal remains found in West Donegal Township in 2012

The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office said Monday it has identified skeletal remains found in West Donegal Township in 2012, and they are those of a former Elizabethtown man.

lancasteronline.com

.

Always happy to see another DDP success.

 

[djanga]

He was a retired bus driver who had recently moved to Elizabethtown, it sounds for me that he lived/moved there alone:

Elizabethtown John Doe 2012, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania found near Masonic Village identified as Mitchell L. Mendelson, 60, of Elizabethtown.

Mendelson retired from Red Rose Transit Authority, where he was a bus driver. He had moved from Lancaster City to Elizabethtown in 2011. His hobbies included walking, cooking and listening to music, Bieber said.

It’s unclear when Mendelson was last seen alive. But his remains were found in a wooded area at Masonic Village retirement community in West Donegal Township on Nov. 2, 2012.

New technology helps to ID skeletal remains found in central Pa. in 2012

The bones belonging to a 60-year-old man were found in a wooded area at Masonic Village in West Donegal Township in Lancaster County.

www.pennlive.com

Skeletal remains found 10 years ago have been identified

Late last year, genetic genealogy and DNA evidence helped identify the man who was found in November 2012.

www.wgal.com

​

 

[djanga]

He was a retired bus driver who had recently moved to Elizabethtown, it sounds for me that he lived/moved there alone:

Elizabethtown John Doe 2012, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania found near Masonic Village identified as Mitchell L. Mendelson, 60, of Elizabethtown.

Mendelson retired from Red Rose Transit Authority, where he was a bus driver. He had moved from Lancaster City to Elizabethtown in 2011. His hobbies included walking, cooking and listening to music, Bieber said.

It’s unclear when Mendelson was last seen alive. But his remains were found in a wooded area at Masonic Village retirement community in West Donegal Township on Nov. 2, 2012.

New technology helps to ID skeletal remains found in central Pa. in 2012

The bones belonging to a 60-year-old man were found in a wooded area at Masonic Village in West Donegal Township in Lancaster County.

www.pennlive.com

Skeletal remains found 10 years ago have been identified

Late last year, genetic genealogy and DNA evidence helped identify the man who was found in November 2012.

www.wgal.com

​

So, Mitchell moved there after his retirement, and his body was found near the Masonic Village retirement community, with pajama pants discovered nearby. Was he living in this retirement community at the time of his death? If it was so, it surprises me nobody noticed his disappearance.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

"mitchell mendelson" - Search - Newspapers.com™

The largest online newspaper archive, established in 2012. Used by millions every month for genealogy and family history, historical research, crime investigations, journalism, and entertainment. Search for obituaries, marriage announcements, birth announcements, social pages, national and local...

www.newspapers.com

Looks like Mitchell wrote into the local paper fairly often.

This is the only photo of him I was able to find - his senior year of high school in 1970.

 

[djanga]

The Dna Doe Project press release:

The initial assessment of John Doe’s genetic ancestry showed that the case would be a challenge – he was 100% Ashkenazi Jewish. Genetic genealogy is more difficult with the Ashkenazi Jewish population due to many previous generations of marriage within the same community.

“When we see Jewish DNA in the profile, we try to assign specialist genetic genealogists to the case,” said Executive Director of Case Management Jennifer Randolph. “Adina Newman set up a strategy that had the team focus on the one top match – a strategy that proved to be very effective in this case.”

Elizabethtown John Doe 2012 | DNA Doe Project

dnadoeproject.org

 

[djanga]

 

[djanga]

Mendelson was a columnist for the Birmingham Post Herald in Alabama, and appeared on an episode of The Alabama Experience on public television in 1992. It’s unclear what drew him back north to Elizabethtown. He was about 60 years old when he died.

From the same press release

 

[djanga]

Times of Israel wrote Mitchel’s story! I think @Susikatze will be interested in reading it. I'm glad Mitchell had a Jewish funeral.

To anyone on the outside, the service was a typical Jewish funeral. Community members surrounded Mendelson and his family; Poale Zedeck Rabbi Daniel Yolkut delivered blessings, prayers and a eulogy that included references to the weekly parshah; mourners took turns shoveling dirt to cover the pine coffin housing Mitchell Mendelson’s remains. There was nothing that looked unusual about the events taking place.

Mendelson said he and his brother were best friends growing up and “thick as thieves.” He described a series of games and activities played in the New York neighborhoods where the pair was raised.

By the time Abby Mendelson was at college, the two were no longer as tight — Abby Mendelson was an older, more distant brother to his younger sibling who was busy playing sports and working on cars.

That physical distance soon became emotional. The brothers saw each other infrequently during their adult years. The last time Abby Mendelson shared space with his brother was in 1996. He last communicated with him in 2009.

It wasn’t simply his family with which Mitchell Mendelson frayed and tore the bonds of relationship.

In 2012, while on a walk through a wooded area near his home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mitchell Mendelson died, possibly from a diabetic stroke. The body lay on the forest floor for nearly three months until a hunter found him. The body didn’t have a wallet — it was most likely stolen at some point during the time he was undiscovered in the woods. When the police were notified, they canvased the surrounding area. No one remembered him, not even a landlady from whom he rented a room

https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/dna-discovers-identity-of-jewish-man-missing-for-more-than-a-decade/

 

[Susikatze]

The Dna Doe Project press release:

The initial assessment of John Doe’s genetic ancestry showed that the case would be a challenge – he was 100% Ashkenazi Jewish. Genetic genealogy is more difficult with the Ashkenazi Jewish population due to many previous generations of marriage within the same community.

“When we see Jewish DNA in the profile, we try to assign specialist genetic genealogists to the case,” said Executive Director of Case Management Jennifer Randolph. “Adina Newman set up a strategy that had the team focus on the one top match – a strategy that proved to be very effective in this case.”

Elizabethtown John Doe 2012 | DNA Doe Project

dnadoeproject.org

That is the way to go - use the top match. Anything that is from the 4th generation level downwards is not very useful because of endogamy. Sort of having 10.000 fourth cousins but everyone shares snaps of the same DNA over and over.

I am so happy he is home and his brother provided him a proper Jewish burial. BDE, may your neshama have an aliya, dear Mitchell. Heartbreaking you had to be without a name for so long.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

That is the way to go - use the top match. Anything that is from the 4th generation level downwards is not very useful because of endogamy. Sort of having 10.000 fourth cousins but everyone shares snaps of the same DNA over and over.

I am so happy he is home and his brother provided him a proper Jewish burial. BDE, may your neshama have an aliya, dear Mitchell. Heartbreaking you had to be without a name for so long.

I have 170K DNA matches on Ancestry and I don't know how I'm related to more than a few dozen. I can't imagine trying to reverse-engineer someone's identity from that. The genealogists over there are amazing.

 

[Susikatze]

I have 170K DNA matches on Ancestry and I don't know how I'm related to more than a few dozen. I can't imagine trying to reverse-engineer someone's identity from that. The genealogists over there are amazing.

Yip, that is exactly why focusing on the closest match(es) is the way to go. Because the closer you are, the more likely it is you can find a family tree and find closer overlaps. All the many other connections lead nowhere in endogamy genealogy since it is the same small amounts of DNA shared over and over and over again by thousands, impossible to track down.

 

[Susikatze]

In a non endogamy case you can often find a person via a 3rd or 4th cousin match - even better if you find another one from a different lineage and you find where they triangulate and then follow down that lineage. In severe endogamy that is impossible, you need an imminent family match on a way closer level.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

The Alabama Experience; Vineboy

Mitch Mendelson is a columnist for the Birmingham Post Herald. The piece focuses on stories he wrote while also looking at the places he writes about to show how Alabama can be a pretty cool place to be. A series that focuses on bringing to life the inspiring stores and empowering characters...

americanarchive.org

Mitchell is featured in this short documentary from 1992.

 

[azure]

The Alabama Experience; Vineboy

Mitch Mendelson is a columnist for the Birmingham Post Herald. The piece focuses on stories he wrote while also looking at the places he writes about to show how Alabama can be a pretty cool place to be. A series that focuses on bringing to life the inspiring stores and empowering characters...

americanarchive.org

Mitchell is featured in this short documentary from 1992. View attachment 553471View attachment 553472

How sad that he went from a newspaper columnist to a UID with a rather undignified nickname in the course of less than 20 years. I wonder if he had a spinal injury that contributed to his withdrawal from those around him. Kyphosis can be caused by spinal injury. It doesn't look congenital from the few photos we have of him.