WA - Unidentified Male: "Lyle Stevik", Grays Harbor, 17 Sept 2001 - #4

[outofthedark]

The best at this points would be to do a DNA test that determines ethnic background, why arent the LE doing that?? Expensive?

Unfortunately, I believe so. I think coldcaseman might have said somewhere that they didn't (or don't) have a ton of money.

 

[Roselvr]

Unfortunately, I believe so. I think coldcaseman might have said somewhere that they didn't (or don't) have a ton of money.

I gave info in the group; he didn't answer. They should be able to get it donated. It's $100

 

[carbuff]

The test you can have done for $100 isn't forensic quality. It's basically a parlor game. The real test, with controls and proper repetition, runs a couple of thousand dollars.

 

[cluehunter84]

I just started reading into this case so sorry if I made a mistake, but it was said that he had a toothbrush and tooth paste on him. Assuming the toothpaste was his and not the motel, wouldn't there be a code on the tube that they might be able to track down where he bought it from? Perhaps he bought it where he was from before he traveled to the hotel and that might be a better place to search, he could have gotten it along the way but it's definately one lead worth checking into.

 

[rosesfromangels]

We humans are so quirky, in that he would be worrying about his dental hygiene while at the same time contemplating suicide

 

[neverletgo]

I think it would be awesome if Lyle could get an article like this:

Why? - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

 

[cluehunter84]

I really feel like he might be connected to NYC. I find the date being 5 days after 9/11 to be a big clue. He could have worked in the tower and either made it out or just didn't get into work that day. He could have seen some horrible things or lost friends, remember some companies were almost completely wiped out.

After 9/11 the death toll was reported in the tens of thousands at first since 50K worked there and all the emergency workers. He could have worked there and seen this as an opportunity to disappear like some may think, almost 1000 people have not had any remains identified that died on 9/11 so it's possible. That could explain him buying the paper, maybe he wasn't finding much on TV about it, and wanted to read the paper to see how things were going.

And what better way than to go 3000 miles away to the other side of the country. I think along the way he stayed at or near that motel in Ohio where he listed that address when he signed in. He was traveling west and stayed there and maybe thought he should have a real address so the owner didn't get suspicious.

His weight also is surprising, being 6'1 and 140 would be sickly thin, I am 5'9 and 155 and people tell me I'm to thin! I think he was probably depressed beforehand, this probably pushed him over the edge if he lost a family member or friend, could have lost his only family member, just 1 parent or all he had was a brother or something, if he didn't work there directly. Also living in NYC could be hard to tan. If you work, that only leaves the weekends, and going to the beach on the weekends here is crowded, there Central Park but maybe like me he's a little shy about tanning in public.

Also one scenario I thought was that he could have graduated the previous summer, got the job in the tower (so no time to tan and enjoy the summer) but that wasn't working for him, could be that it wasn't fulfilling, what he thought it would be, or was to hard for him. Also he could have moved to the city and living on his own maybe his food budget was smaller or he couldn't cook so well. (I'm actually describing myself here quite a bit!)

Could he have gone cross country by bus in 3 days in order to hit his motel by 9/14? Not familiar with buses like Greyhound, but I doubt he flew with the way things were after 9/11 and he could have driven part way and than got on a bus, but that doesn't account for the car, if someone were looking for him, even if he drove and than sold the car, they would still be able to track down where it was sold. So I think he would have taken a bus, not sure if that is possible though?

 

[cluehunter84]

My last post was originally MUCH longer. I made the mistake of not checking the keep me signed in box, and when I went to post I had to resign in and my whole post was lost!

Some things I left out from trying to remember what I wrote the first time...

Suicides were up after 9/11 but except for LE poking around, it wouldn't have gotten much if any media attention (papers or TV) and certainly with all the events and missing people, nobody in the NYC area would be paying attention to a suicide on the opposite coast. Also if it did get media attention, it would be obvious he wasn't from that general area because nobody recognized him. It is likely he traveled from further away, I realize this is just a guess but that's what my gut tells me, more or less he went out of his way to remain unidentified and traveled to a low traffic spot at a crazy time where his death would be low priority.

I was also looking into the Sneha Anne Philip case. Not sure if there is a thread devoted to her, but it's a very interesting case about a woman who disappeared on 9/11 even though she didn't work near the WTC, had a suspicious past, and no remains were ever found at ground zero. There are rumors that she used the event to get away from her legal and marriage problems. Obviously LS case ends differently but they may share some similiarities.

 

[Ambercat]

I don't mean this as a weird question, but -- is it possible to determine if "Lyle" didn't actually have chest hair or if it had been waxed? I think a while ago, someone said that if he had waxed his chest, he would have done something about his unibrow (?), yet never said for certain that it hadn't been waxed.

 

[rosesfromangels]

The lack of chest hair, while not a certainty, suggests the possibility of native american heritage.

 

[LucyOso]

I just started reading into this case so sorry if I made a mistake, but it was said that he had a toothbrush and tooth paste on him. Assuming the toothpaste was his and not the motel, wouldn't there be a code on the tube that they might be able to track down where he bought it from? Perhaps he bought it where he was from before he traveled to the hotel and that might be a better place to search, he could have gotten it along the way but it's definately one lead worth checking into.

This has been mentioned a few times. It is a great point. Not sure if anything was checked on it, though.

 

[carbuff]

My last post was originally MUCH longer. I made the mistake of not checking the keep me signed in box, and when I went to post I had to resign in and my whole post was lost!

Some things I left out from trying to remember what I wrote the first time...

Suicides were up after 9/11 but except for LE poking around, it wouldn't have gotten much if any media attention (papers or TV) and certainly with all the events and missing people, nobody in the NYC area would be paying attention to a suicide on the opposite coast. Also if it did get media attention, it would be obvious he wasn't from that general area because nobody recognized him. It is likely he traveled from further away, I realize this is just a guess but that's what my gut tells me, more or less he went out of his way to remain unidentified and traveled to a low traffic spot at a crazy time where his death would be low priority.

I was also looking into the Sneha Anne Philip case. Not sure if there is a thread devoted to her, but it's a very interesting case about a woman who disappeared on 9/11 even though she didn't work near the WTC, had a suspicious past, and no remains were ever found at ground zero. There are rumors that she used the event to get away from her legal and marriage problems. Obviously LS case ends differently but they may share some similiarities.

In addition to the official list of missing people after 9/11, there were quite a few people who evacuated Manhattan and just kept on going. After looking death in the face, they decided they couldn't keep on with the life they were living. Many of them went back to the small towns they came from. Others went into religious orders or service organizations. Quite a number wound up on the road as part of the itinerant/homeless population.

And there was a pretty large chunk of low-end housing that wasn't directly destroyed but was uninhabitable due to the toxic dust.

The timing works out for "Lyle" to have been one of the uprooted.

 

[rosesfromangels]

I think the timing with the 9-11 incident has merit. I don't think he was low end housing resident however, based on his upscale-ish orthodontic care.

 

[True Crime Gal]

{respectful snip}
Could he have gone cross country by bus in 3 days in order to hit his motel by 9/14? Not familiar with buses like Greyhound, but I doubt he flew with the way things were after 9/11 and he could have driven part way and than got on a bus, but that doesn't account for the car, if someone were looking for him, even if he drove and than sold the car, they would still be able to track down where it was sold. So I think he would have taken a bus, not sure if that is possible though?

I plugged NYC and Seattle into Greyhound's website for a cross-country trip leaving today, and it quotes two different travel time lengths depending on departure time and number of transfers:

• 3 days, 1 hour, 30 minutes: leaves 9am, has 5 transfers
• 2 days, 21 hours and 35 minutes: leaves 11 pm, has 4 transfers

Probably the difference stems from the length of the transfers, but it certainly is to get there in 3 days. (I can't remember off-hand if there were verified sightings before his death, though.)

Amtrak (train service) can be even faster: one of the trains leaving New York's Penn Station is showing a 66 hour, 45 minute trip to Seattle's King Street Station. (2.75 days and change.)

(Bearing in mind, of course, that leaving Penn Station just post-9/11 probably wasn't all that swift, and the trains were probably pretty packed.)

tcg

 

[carbuff]

I think the timing with the 9-11 incident has merit. I don't think he was low end housing resident however, based on his upscale-ish orthodontic care.

In Manhattan, there's not necessarily a connection like that, because housing is so expensive. Students, artists, musicians, aspiring Broadway performers, and retirees all live in that part of town, in addition to lots of people working in service, retail, and commercial jobs.

You can have a pretty good job, with medical and dental, and still not be able to afford much in the way of housing.

 

[outofthedark]

On the topic of DNA, I found this info about Lyle's type of DNA from Wikipedia:

Nuclear DNA, or nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid (nDNA), is DNA contained within a nucleus of eukaryotic organisms.[1] Nuclear DNA encodes for the majority of the genome in eukaryotes, with DNA located in mitochondria and plastids coding for the rest. Nuclear DNA is adheres to Mendelian inheritance, with information coming from two parents, one male, and one female, rather than matrilineally as in mitochondrial DNA.[2]

Nuclear DNA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I wonder if this makes it possible to determine the ethnic backgrounds of both of his parents?

 

[astridxx]

This is a HUGE stretch (39 at time of Lyle's death), but I can't help but to notice the similarities in the nose, jaw line and eyebrows.

https://secure.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/missing-disparus/case-dossier.jsf?case=2013000130&id=3

 

[carbuff]

Side by side of Norman Rivet with Lyle's sketch (click to enlarge). The likeness is even more striking with the PM photo, but I don't want to post that here.

Everything matches except the age, and really that's only marginally off -- Namus gives his maximum age as 35.

Of course we've seen many cases of dead-on facial matches that don't pan out, but I think you're onto something here. Maybe it's that expression of deep psychic pain.

 

[SeeMamaRun]

This is a HUGE stretch (39 at time of Lyle's death), but I can't help but to notice the similarities in the nose, jaw line and eyebrows.

https://secure.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/missing-disparus/case-dossier.jsf?case=2013000130&id=3

I was just looking at Norman Rivet the other day. When I look for Lyle matches I always look at his ears first. There's only one pm that really shows his ears (I link to it below) Norman and Lyle seems to have very similar ear lobes. It even looks like Norman might have a mole on his chin!

The description says he left a suicide note for his parents. I suppose that could have been an effort to keep them from looking for him since he didn't actually commit suicide for 18 years. What would he have been doing in that time? The description also says he had a slender/thin build but he could have gained weight and lost it again by 2001. We know he was very thin when he died. Montreal, he would have a French Canadian accent but if he spent 18 years living in the US then it could have become a "slight" Canadian accent by the time of his death.

It's a long time span from missing to death but I think it's worth checking to see if they've looked at Norman!

Here are Lyle's Post-Mortem photos including the one that shows his ears:
(warning: may seem graphic to some)
http://uidmysteries.blogspot.com/p/lyle-stevik-post-mortem-photos.html

 

[astridxx]

I didn't see him on the rule out list -- but then again I hurriedly looked at it today. I don't know, the age is unsettling to me. It's my biggest hang up.


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