TX TX- Lancaster, WhtMale, 29-49, UP1809, In field with books, sleeping bag, headphones and cassette player. January 2003.

[cheemsg]

Date Body Found: January 16, 2003
Location Found: Lancaster, Texas
Estimated Age Range: 29-49 Years

Year of death: 1950-2003
Height: 5'10

Circumstances of Recovery: Skeletal remains found in field.

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Details of Recovery​

Inventory of Remains: One or more limbs not recovered One or both hands not recovered
Condition of Remains: Not recognizable - Near complete or complete skeleton

Accessories
Sleeping bag, books, headphones, portable radio/casette player, cassette tape

Clothing
Size large "Morgan Mills" long john pants

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

 

[iamshadow21]

Date Body Found: January 16, 2003
Location Found: Lancaster, Texas
Estimated Age Range: 29-49 Years

Year of death: 1950-2003
Height: 5'10

Circumstances of Recovery: Skeletal remains found in field.

---

Details of Recovery​

Inventory of Remains: One or more limbs not recovered One or both hands not recovered
Condition of Remains: Not recognizable - Near complete or complete skeleton

Accessories
Sleeping bag, books, headphones, portable radio/casette player, cassette tape

Clothing
Size large "Morgan Mills" long john pants

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Weird death range, over fifty years is just nuts. A good forensic anthropologist should have been able to give a much tighter window. Also, the 'grave goods'. If they have a cassette player, headphones, and tapes directly associated, then surely this Doe isn't as early as 1950. That technology is very dateable, it changes and evolves all the time. As are the books, if they're at all intact, but they probably aren't - every book has a year of printing inside, and books from like the 70s onward all have an ISBN. Also, sleeping bags... more modern ones are all nylon and other synthetics. I remember the ones my mum had bought when she was a young adult in the late sixties/early seventies, they were more like a light canvas with some kind of felt batting inside. The longjohns are also probably dateable, since they seem to know the brand and size. Most skeletal remains have so little with them... this is a wealth of stuff that should be examined. Photographs should be made available if possible of the items.

MOO

 

[cheemsg]

Weird death range, over fifty years is just nuts. A good forensic anthropologist should have been able to give a much tighter window. Also, the 'grave goods'. If they have a cassette player, headphones, and tapes directly associated, then surely this Doe isn't as early as 1950. That technology is very dateable, it changes and evolves all the time. As are the books, if they're at all intact, but they probably aren't - every book has a year of printing inside, and books from like the 70s onward all have an ISBN. Also, sleeping bags... more modern ones are all nylon and other synthetics. I remember the ones my mum had bought when she was a young adult in the late sixties/early seventies, they were more like a light canvas with some kind of felt batting inside. The longjohns are also probably dateable, since they seem to know the brand and size. Most skeletal remains have so little with them... this is a wealth of stuff that should be examined. Photographs should be made available if possible of the items.

MOO

I think 1950 is a placeholder date for Dallas Co. I've seen cases where they're just decomposed and have a death date of 1950-onwards. I think it's just to say the remains are modern. I wish we could know what his books and tapes actually were, could be real helpful to identifying him.

 

[iamshadow21]

I think 1950 is a placeholder date for Dallas Co. I've seen cases where they're just decomposed and have a death date of 1950-onwards. I think it's just to say the remains are modern. I wish we could know what his books and tapes actually were, could be real helpful to identifying him.

It's a weird thing to do, I guess they have their reasons, but it's virtually impossible to narrow down potential names when the field is so wide. I think from the description of the stuff, it's likely a walkman-type cassette player, so that makes it more likely to be eighties to nineties? If they had pictures of the things though, it would be able to be narrowed more still. The tapes I had that were manufactured in the seventies and eighties looked nothing like the tapes that I had by the nineties. They'd gone from chunky opaque heavy plastic to clear light plastic. Walkmans changed drastically over those two decades. As did headphones. And of course, it's possible for someone to have old things, but impossible for them to have something NEWER than the scene, if it's truly part of the scene. That's why they love finding coins or dateable pottery in archaeology, especially under an undisturbed grave or foundation. It gives you a 'no earlier than' date to work from.

MOO

 

[Ciriii57]

How intriguing! I might see if I can get more info on the items, they should be really useful for at least determining a date and possibly much more.
Will update if I get further info.