SC SC - Fountain Inn, WhtMale, 32-55, UP89699, Found in Creek, Cowboy Boots, Nov'97

Tuck

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  • #1
General Information

Date of Discovery - 11/11/1997

Location of Discovery - Fountain Inn, Greenville County, South Carolina

Estimated Date of Death - 1989 - 1996

State of Remains - Not recognizable - Partial skeletal parts only

Cause of Death - Homicide

Physical Description

Estimated Age - 32 -55

Race - White / Caucasian

Gender - Male

Height - 5'5 - 5'10, Estimated

Weight - Cannot Estimate

Hair Color - Unknown

Eye Color - Unknown or Missing

Distinguishing Marks / Features - No Teeth (Unclear if Antemortem or Postmortem)

Clothing and Personal Items

Clothing - Light-colored swim trunks, cutoff blue jean shorts, burgundy low-cut cowboy boots (approximate size 10.5) and dark-colored socks.

Jewelry - Gold rimmed sunglasses

Additional Personal Items - Black comb.

Circumstances of Discovery

The nephew of a property owner collecting river sand found the remains of the man in a heavily wooded area four miles south of Simpsonsville near the line for Greenville and Laurens County. The remains were found near a path leading to Paynes Branch Creek, leading to speculation that the man had been washed down from further upstream due to the low-lying nature of the area in which he was located.

Authorities recovered most of the skeleton (including two thigh bones, one upper arm bone, one shinbone, sixteen vertebrae, a scapula and bones from the left and right feet) as well as some decayed clothing, and ruled that the cause of the death was multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Despite searches of state and national databases, the man has not been identified.

 
  • #2
A friend of mine called the coroner today about this case to see if they've compared it to Jimmy Dale Whitfield and the coroner told her that they have no record of this case! They spent over an hour on the phone waiting for answers to be told it doesn't exist....so what happened?
 
  • #3
A friend of mine called the coroner today about this case to see if they've compared it to Jimmy Dale Whitfield and the coroner told her that they have no record of this case! They spent over an hour on the phone waiting for answers to be told it doesn't exist....so what happened?
Wow, that’s weird. They are listed on NamUs under Investigating Agencies, they have a case number and all.. The Greenville County Sheriff's Office is listed as the case owner, perhaps they know more. Maybe he was identified and this is why they don’t have it under open cases? Or maybe it was just misplaced, it wouldn’t be the first time that happened..
 
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  • #4
Wow, that’s weird. They are listed on NamUs under Investigating Agencies, they have a case number and all.. The Greenville County Sheriff's Office is listed as the case owner, perhaps they know more. Maybe he was identified and this is why they don’t have it under open cases? Or maybe it was just misplaced, it wouldn’t be the first time that happened..
If it was a murder case wouldn’t the coroner still need to keep a record of the case? Also I read the article from 1997 that said the sent the remains to the bone farm to attempt to identify, but were not able to, it says in the article that the Greenville county coroner was present for this. How is this not kept in records?
 
  • #5
I was reading an article about the Greenville County coroner. He’s set to retire this year after more than 30 years serving as a coroner in Greenville. This would mean he was working there when this doe was found. He says in the article that in ‘92 most cases were traffic related so I imagine a case like this would make an impression, especially when the victim’s identity isn’t known. Now I’m super curious what happened with the records.

 
  • #6
I was reading an article about the Greenville County coroner. He’s set to retire this year after more than 30 years serving as a coroner in Greenville. This would mean he was working there when this doe was found. He says in the article that in ‘92 most cases were traffic related so I imagine a case like this would make an impression, especially when the victim’s identity isn’t known. Now I’m super curious what happened with the records.

The coroner you're speaking of, Parks Evans, is listed as the coroner on this case in 1997 news articles. And since he's still there, I emailed him today to see if he remembers it but since the same office had no idea this case existed, I'm not sure what he'll have to say. Next steps will be getting in touch with Greenville County LE
 
  • #7
I was reading an article about the Greenville County coroner. He’s set to retire this year after more than 30 years serving as a coroner in Greenville. This would mean he was working there when this doe was found. He says in the article that in ‘92 most cases were traffic related so I imagine a case like this would make an impression, especially when the victim’s identity isn’t known. Now I’m super curious what happened with the records.

Yes he was there, he is mention in the news articles about the body going to be scammed at the Bone Farm
 
  • #8
So what is the connection between this John Doe and Jimmy Dale Whitfield?

We have a newspaper article provided with Whitfield official case records sent from Oconee County with the FOIA request, yet the the Greenville County Coroner has no records of that John Doe??

What is going on with these two cases? Are they connected? Perhaps the State agency should come in and sort this out???
 
  • #9
Here is an article about the doe, btw. From December 1997.
img.jpg
 
  • #10
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  • #13
I'm still pretty convinced this is Jimmy Whitfield. Everything seems to fit, and upon FOIA'ing for Jimmy's file, an article about this doe was included in his file! FOIA'd the Greenville Sheriff's office for the photos of the doe's remains/belongings etc. and was denied "because it could interfere with an active investigation". All I was able to receive was the first page of the original incident report from his entire file. I worry that they were unable/unwilling to find the documents since phoning them only let us know that they barely know more than the coroner.

What I don't understand is - if there are photos of his belongings etc, why not release them? There are hundreds if not thousands of doe's who have photos of their belongings on their profile to HELP them be identified. I would love someone else's thoughts/insights on this.
 
  • #14
I'm still pretty convinced this is Jimmy Whitfield. Everything seems to fit, and upon FOIA'ing for Jimmy's file, an article about this doe was included in his file! FOIA'd the Greenville Sheriff's office for the photos of the doe's remains/belongings etc. and was denied "because it could interfere with an active investigation". All I was able to receive was the first page of the original incident report from his entire file. I worry that they were unable/unwilling to find the documents since phoning them only let us know that they barely know more than the coroner.

What I don't understand is - if there are photos of his belongings etc, why not release them? There are hundreds if not thousands of doe's who have photos of their belongings on their profile to HELP them be identified. I would love someone else's thoughts/insights on this.
This doe was a murder victim as I read it so unfortunately everything they have is evidence tha can be used in the investigation and they usually won’t release anything because it could be the key thing.
 
  • #15
This doe was a murder victim as I read it so unfortunately everything they have is evidence tha can be used in the investigation and they usually won’t release anything because it could be the key thing.
But aren't a lot of does that have their PM photos, and belongings online also murder victims? I guess that's why I can't understand - how does a photo of his boots really have anything to do with the murder?
 
  • #16
But aren't a lot of does that have their PM photos, and belongings online also murder victims? I guess that's why I can't understand - how does a photo of his boots really have anything to do with the murder?
It is at the discretion of the individual police departments. In this case they have chosen not to, but then again the also illegally removed his remains. Maybe you could contact the Governot
 
  • #17

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