Identified! WI - Clinton, 'River Guy' WhtMale 1207UMWI, 17-20, 'Venom' TShirt, Nov'95 - Carl Junior Isaacs

[valeriej]

Is it permitted, or would it be helpful to post where he went to high school? That piece of information is now known throughout the local community, and he went to high school almost within sight of Turtle Creek, but further east. So this waterway would have been very well known to him for years.

People very commonly walk it, fish it, and go canoeing and kayaking on it. The exact location is *rural*, but it's not at all isolated. It would have been an easy hike, an obvious hike of about an hour to visit the local grocery store, if he'd had money at some point. (I can't imagine at all that he was *lost*, but he might have been afraid to be seen in public.)

 

[HmmMysterious]

Is it permitted, or would it be helpful to post where he went to high school? That piece of information is now known throughout the local community, and he went to high school almost within sight of Turtle Creek, but further east. So this waterway would have been very well known to him for years.

People very commonly walk it, fish it, and go canoeing and kayaking on it. The exact location is *rural*, but it's not at all isolated. It would have been an easy hike, an obvious hike of about an hour to visit the local grocery store, if he'd had money at some point. (I can't imagine at all that he was *lost*, but he might have been afraid to be seen in public.)

I think that would be very helpful. Please post it.

I wonder if Walworth County authorities were even aware that a body fitting Isaacs' description was even found or vice versa. It seems that Rock County authorities weren't aware Isaacs was on the run either.

 

[valeriej]

For context, if helpful.

The closest public access to the area of water and woods where Carl was found would either be a rest stop, Turtle Creek Access at 140 (west and downstream), or Carver-Roehl Park (east and upstream). From either direction, it would require walking about a mile through brush. Parts of it are slower going, but this isn't deep wilderness by any means.
I've never done it, but the place where he was found is easily accessed by canoe or kayak. I'd imagine that wouldn't take long at all from upstream.

These are my own photos that I took today at the Turtle Creek Access at 140. (Wisconsin is beautiful.)

Now and in 1995, it's been very common to see cars, trucks, canoes, and fishers and hikers here. It's a weekday, so there was one other car but mine today.

My family has had more picnics and more hours of kids playing in these woods along the creek than I could ever begin to measure, but mostly from the Carver-Roehl access point.

 

[valeriej]

I think that would be very helpful. Please post it.

I wonder if Walworth County authorities were even aware that a body fitting Isaacs' description was even found or vice versa. It seems that Rock County authorities weren't aware Isaacs was on the run either.

Delavan-Darien High School. (The elementary school there is actually called Turtle Creek Elementary School.)

Finding the unidentified body was big news at the time, locally. But I never knew anything about an escaped 20 yo on the run from 1995 until I looked CJI up at the state circuit court portal immediately after the news conference yesterday. I can't imagine that a walk-away escape would have been in the paper at all at the time, since those were petty charges.

But it seems so weird to me that they would wait to issue a warrant for his arrest *sixteen months* after he walked away from jail. Obviously, it's not likely that they had another beef with him and just wanted to pick him up for that. So, if a warrant was to be issued at all, why not in April 1995, the month that he walked away?

It feels like.... If only the right RCSO deputy (or Clinton police officer) had met the right City of Delavan [original arresting agency], Walworth County [incarceration in their jail], or WI State Patrol [1996 warrant] officer for coffee in 1995-96....

 

[valeriej]

Why would the skull be separated from the rest of the bones and cremated.....while the rest was buried?!?

It should all have been kept together and buried together.

MOO.

I don't think they've ever said if they preserved any dental x-rays before cremating the skull, but autopsy on the bones offered no evidence for cause of death and foul play wasn't suspected.

I had understood that they expected only that the skull could have been useful for identifying him, by dental records, so it was kept when the other bones were buried. As time passed and no strong leads were developed, they decided not to keep it, and exhumation would have been expensive.

At the time, with the forensic dating from the time, and with the October 1994 "River Guy" sighting, it seemed nearly certain that he had frozen to death over the late fall or winter of 94-95.

 

[breachtones]

I don't think they've ever said if they preserved any dental x-rays before cremating the skull, but autopsy on the bones offered no evidence for cause of death and foul play wasn't suspected.

I had understood that they expected only that the skull could have been useful for identifying him, by dental records, so it was kept when the other bones were buried. As time passed and no strong leads were developed, they decided not to keep it, and exhumation would have been expensive.

At the time, with the forensic dating from the time, and with the October 1994 "River Guy" sighting, it seemed nearly certain that he had frozen to death over the late fall or winter of 94-95.

bit of a strange coincidence how river guy is almost certainly not Carl due to the date discrepancy, but also rambled about being a "fugitive", which is exactly what Carl was.

 

[Bit of hope]

The place he was found so absolutely beautiful, the circumstances so absolutely horrible. RIP Mr. Isaacs. Condolences to his loved ones.

 

[JP-Wrath]

bit of a strange coincidence how river guy is almost certainly not Carl due to the date discrepancy, but also rambled about being a "fugitive", which is exactly what Carl was.

I still think that was Carl. He might have wandered that area several times in a span of months.

 

[carbuff]

I still think that was Carl. He might have wandered that area several times in a span of months.

I was thinking that too. There's nothing in the River Guy story that says he died that night. It seemed logical to assume that before the recent data about time of death, but there's nothing firm.

 

[breachtones]

I still think that was Carl. He might have wandered that area several times in a span of months.

I was under the impression he was in prison in October 1994 for the golf cart incidents. But perhaps he got out and then got back in, before leaving for good in April 1995.

 

[HmmMysterious]

Click here to read more about Isaacs’ criminal record.

Isaacs was sentenced to 5 years in jail for vandalism and burglary of golf carts and other property at Delbrook Golf Course. He was at 3 different prisons starting in April 1992. By the fall of 1993, Isaacs was at Oregon’s Oakhill Correctional Facility. There were periods of time in which he was released to home detention and to a halfway house on Odana Road in Madison.

Here’s something weird about the article. It says Isaacs escaped from an intensive sanctions program in April 1994 not April 1995. The program made participants get involved in the community. He most likely ran away from a program location.

So, could Isaacs have been River Guy? Or did the article mixed up the years?

 

[airportwoman]

It sounds like this young man was in a lot of trouble, and perhaps he hid in the woods as a means of escape? Hypothermia is definitely a possibility, but I also wonder if maybe he was allergic to bee or hornet stings, and that is how he died. Yeah, we'll never know for sure.

RIP, Carl.

 

[valeriej]

The Janesville Gazette has more info on his crimes, his schooling, and his placements after arrest. It also says that a warrant for his arrest was issued right away in April 1995.

Some news reports have said he walked away from the Walworth County Jail in April 1995. This one says he walked away from house arrest at his mother's house in Walworth, on or before April 16, 1995. If that's accurate, it explains how he got clothes and possessions. I wonder if he stayed at any other places after leaving there.

NOTE: He wasn't found in a field but on a steep embankment along the creek.

This interested me especially--
"The court records show Isaacs was cooperative with investigators in leading them to unravel a number of local burglaries involving people Isaacs was running with at the time who spanned ages 17 to 22."

I don't know if they have any way of knowing that he died in the woods. He was found with his hands over his head (in some fashion) and his flannel shirt pulled up over his head and back, missing a shoe, and on the bank of a stream easily navigated by canoe.

I can't even imagine he was lost, since it's not far to roads and buildings in either direction. There are limited ways for a healthy person to die in very accessible woods in May-June. (That's their estimate to 97% decomposition.)

I wonder if there's any possibility that they kept the cigarette butts. Maybe too much time and too much weather though.

 

[valeriej]

Powerpoint created by Rock County Sheriff's Office for the press conference on 6/14.

 

[valeriej]

WCLO "Your Talk Show"

Interview with Private Investigator Jack Friess. I noticed a couple of minor errors. No significant new info. It's interesting that Friess expects that one of the tasks now will be to find out whether there are indications of homicide.

I'm curious about that. As I understand it, he was found face down on a steep embankment, along navigable water, with his head turned to the left, his arms outstretched above his head, and his quilted flannel shirt over his head in some way.

I wonder if that translates better to him passing while climbing the bank on his hands and knees or to someone having pulling his body to that hidden spot by its arms. (The written description might not translate exactly to how I'm imagining it though.)

I can't grasp how his body would be in that position if he passed from natural or accidental causes while standing, sitting, or sleeping.

In May-Oct, most of that area would have been hidden by deep, weedy brush. By late Nov, most of that low cover would be dead, revealing anything hidden. That suggests to me that if he had been there in April or early May, before that had all grown up, he likely would have been spotted sooner.

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

Walworth County Court records paint a picture of a teenager who’d had substance abuse problems since junior high school, and then entered adulthood imprisoned for a string of burglaries and criminal damage to businesses and residences in 1991.
These were crimes Isaacs was tried for as an adult after he and his friends were accused in June 1991 of a pulling a spree of small-time, alcohol and drug-fueled heists in Delavan, according to court papers.

Prosecutor’s statements from court transcripts in 1991 painted the then-17-year-old Isaac and his friends as wanton thrill-seekers responsible for multiple overnight burglaries that left a Delavan golf course’s fleet of golf carts damaged and a Delavan liquor store pilfered and with a smashed-in wall.

“There’s kids still today who are just like that. They’re estranged from their families. In this case, mom and dad were divorced. He (Isaacs) was kind of living with mom, although I don’t think he stayed there very often. He was kind of on the streets, basically homeless. I don’t think he had a friend, nobody at all around who would have missed him to the point they’d try to find him,” Friess said.

Court records show Carl J. Isaacs, Jr. was serving prison sentence at home when he disappeared

Among rows of family grave markers as old as the little berg of Johnstown itself, lays a much newer stone, one that’s small, low to the ground and reads: “John

www.gazettextra.com

 

[Alleykins]

“There’s kids still today who are just like that. They’re estranged from their families. In this case, mom and dad were divorced. He (Isaacs) was kind of living with mom, although I don’t think he stayed there very often. He was kind of on the streets, basically homeless. I don’t think he had a friend, nobody at all around who would have missed him to the point they’d try to find him,” Friess said.

That's heart breaking to hear.

 

[phantomstrider]

Yes, very sad.

Unfortunately, fugitives aren't generally reported missing, since it's assumed they fled on their own. They're on outstanding warrant lists, not missing people databases. I suspect quite a number of our unidentified cases have walked away from jail, work detail, halfway house, etc. and not reported missing.the missing person

The missing person report might also be lost or not taken seriously

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

“There’s kids still today who are just like that. They’re estranged from their families. In this case, mom and dad were divorced. He (Isaacs) was kind of living with mom, although I don’t think he stayed there very often. He was kind of on the streets, basically homeless. I don’t think he had a friend, nobody at all around who would have missed him to the point they’d try to find him,” Friess said.

That's heart breaking to hear.

Extremely heartbreaking. The system failed him in life and in death ☹. It's also really sad to hear he was a local and was on the radar for years apparently due to warrants but no body put two in two together.

 

[Alleykins]

Maybe I'm misremembering, but wasn't someone on here looking into arrest records or articles about arrests of local guys? This was based on the encounters folks had with the young man who said he was a criminal, if that was, indeed, Carl. Seems to have been the right direction to go in back then in identifying him.