This is a long shot, but what about this UID?
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
What follows is a lot of speculation, wrapped around a kernel of certainty, so if you have an Ancestry.com subscription, please don't just roll your eyes and move on till you have read the relevant bit.
Against: UID estimated between 45-60, estimated death around 2000 (rather than 1984). Estimated caucasian, whereas Henry seems to be caucasian/asian mix (listing says Pacific Islander, though middle and surname are Japanese; see below as to why that may be). Henry too young to have grey hair. Nothing in file mentions 6th lumbar vertebra, as in this UID, or the healed injuries associated with this UID. There's no indication that he was on pain meds, and it's possible that the prescription on the bottle may have been legible, permitting them to date to beyond when he went missing, though I don't know. I've seen images of the backpack and the bunny inside of it, and they don't seem to have been in the woods that long, from a casual inspection of those items in photos.
On the other hand, the NamUs case does have some good photos loaded up in 2016, that indicate that at one time, at least, when younger, Howard wore a woven necklace not unlike the one on the UID. He wears glasses, as did the UID (though I haven't found an image of the glasses, and there's no indication they are wire-rimmed). In the latest picture before his disappearance, Howard has an infant child on his lap. Is this his? Is it her bunny? There seems to be some young woman (mostly excised) sitting beside him in the latter photo, and judging by this plea for information at Ancestry.com, this is the child, Vicki Lee Takenaka:
Message Boards
She says that she was born in Hawaii in 1979, when her father was stationed there, and that he was 21. Five years later, he disappeared, when he was 26, and she was about 4. His disappearing on January 1 is a sign that the circumstances are very vague. Judging by a response to her original posting, Vicki Lee originally spelled her last name as Tanaka in 2000, then returned to change it in 2004.
She grew up in foster homes, and was looking for information regarding her parents. Given that new photographs were evidently supplied by her paternal grandparents just a few years ago, it would be nice to get in touch with her. Have any of you got an Ancestry.com subscription? I mean, no reason to pass on the information about this UID. It would be very sad, though, if Howard had gone down to Oneida County to work, say, in logging, which would be consistent with this UIDs injuries, then suicided, if that's indeed what happened, just as his daughter started looking for him. My hope is that somehow she is put in touch with her paternal grandparents.
View attachment 223093 View attachment 223094
