The Lost and the Found

http://www.veterandoe.com/john-doe-massachusetts-1975.html



John Doe Middlesex County, Massachusetts
​​Late 20's - early 30's (Estimated age: Adult - Pre 40) White Male

Discovered on May 22, 1975 in Burlington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

He was wearing an army field jacket (size regular small), a t-shirt, jeans, cheap canvass sneakers with black socks, a garrison type belt with a distinctive buckle and a necklace around his neck with a unique medallion, attached to it.

Also, the black socks and gold fillings in those days usually meant you were associated with the military or law enforcement. Dental records would easily confirm the man's identity.

Race:  White
Sex: Male
Weight (pounds):  Cannot Estimate
Height (inches): 72, Estimated
Hair color: Brown - long dark brown
Eye color:  Unknown or Missing

​Circumstances: Found in wooded area.

Body conditions: Not recognizable - Decomposing/putrefaction
Estimated postmortem interval: Probable year of death to 1975
Facial hair: Some evidence of facial hair.
Artificial body parts and aids: Full upper plate. (dental / dentures)
Clothing on body: Army fatigue jacket size regular small (See label image on link below), pale blue sweater-like upper garment or Tee shirt, garrison belt and Levis.
Footwear: stockings and sneakers.
Jewelry: Thin metal chain attached to which is an orange metal medallion (see image on link below), impressed with the Thespian masks of comedy and tragedy.
Fingerprint information is currently not available
​​Dental information / charting is available and will be entered later
DNA: Sample is currently not available
​https://identifyus.org/en/cases/14005
John Doe News Articles
http://www.woburnonline.com/frontpage/april05/4705-4.html


Police seek answers in 30-year Burlington mystery
By STEVE DeMARCO news@woburnonline.com

BURLINGTON It is a grave at Chestnut Hill Cemetery that is just grass, there is no stone, but it does have a designation Section D, No. 550. An unidentified man is buried there whose body was discovered in a wooded area off Muller Road nearly 30 years ago.

The site's emptiness reflects the fruitless results of the work of some detectives in the Burlington Police Department, who have tried off-and-on for those 30 years to identify the man.

According to Inspector Frank Nardone, the man was murdered (shot twice in the back of the head), and his body was buried in about two feet of dirt off Muller Road, near what was known as a "lover's lane" in 1975 (the entrance has since been blocked off with large hay bales).

Since that time, "We have had several leads, and they have all come up short," said Nardone.

"I figured that with all of the computers (accessibility to data) we have now, we would have identified him by now," Nardone went on to say. "But some of those missing-person sites, they can be very depressing.

"We (Nardone, Inspector Gary Burdick, Sgt. Glen Mills, and State Trooper Peter Sennott) have been going at this for the last two years full-blast," said Nardone. "There has got to be an answer out there somewhere."

In defining the difficulty he has had in trying to make strides in the case, Nardone said he received the autopsy on the body just two years ago. The law requires that autopsy reports only go to next-of-kin and the district attorney's office.

"He has to have family, hopefully, his family is alive," Nardone said. "Sometimes, people leave, lose complete contact with their family. That could be the case here."

"This is someone who lost his life, but they stole his name," Nardone went on to say. "Some people may have thought he was bad, but he started out good.

"If I can do this (identify the body) before I retire," Nardone continued, "I feel I will have accomplished something."

Possible military connections

Reports indicate the body was discovered May 22, 1975, by two men who were in the Muller Road woods walking a dog.

"He was wearing an army field jacket, dungarees, and canvas sneakers with black socks," said Nardone. "Wearing black socks in those days usually meant you were associated with the military or law enforcement."

Police officials deduced at the time that the body had been buried there "anywhere between six months and a year."

He had "excellent dental records" of the man, Nardone said, but "all dental records were sent to St. Louis in the late 1970s and were destroyed in a fire."

The inspector added that there were several gold fillings in the man's mouth, and "the only people who had gold in their mouths in '75 were mostly military people."

Nardone also said the man was wearing a belt with a unique, Garrison-style buckle, and a medallion suggestive of association with a motorcycle gang.

"At that time, there were reports of motorcycle gangs in town," Nardone recalled. "There were a couple of houses where four of them, five of them would live."

A witness came forward in the 1980s whom Nardone initially considered credible, he said. He led them to a motorcycle group in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., "but that trail eventually went cold," Nardone stated.

Nardone said he later learned this witness "spelled his last name two different ways," which cast further doubt on his credibility.

Next steps

Nardone said he would like to exhume the body, and that is a daunting task, he said, "because there are a lot of hurdles you have to get through, you just can't exhume a body."

That will require a court order, Nardone said, as well as permission from the local Board of Health because "we are digging up a body. I am trying to get the state (medical examiner's office) to exhume the body."

If the body is exhumed (it is first sent, casket and all, to the state medical examiner's office) that could ultimately reveal a lot, Nardone said.

"With all the technology and advances, we can do a lot more than we could do in 1975," he said. "I have an artist who could draw a picture of his face, and two other people I have could make a clay model of his skull."

Nardone also said advances with DNA could aid in identifying the man.

A local funeral home has offered to donate a new casket for the body, Nardone said, because the original casket "has likely been destroyed, or at least decayed."

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com

Crime beat: Medallion links valley to cold case near Boston

Police seek ID of man, shot in head, whose body was found in '75
Jan 14, 2013

BURLINGTON, MASS.  Police in Massachusetts investigating a 1975 cold case homicide hope mid-Hudson Valley residents will recognize a medallion found on the victim's body  which is linked to a former motorcycle club in Poughkeepsie and help authorities identify the man.

The man died of two gunshot wounds to the head. His body was found in a shallow grave in the woods in Burlington, less than 20 miles outside Boston. The man may have been buried for about six months when his body was found May 22, 1975, the Burlington Police Department said.

The victim is described as a white male, about 5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet tall, and possibly in his late 20s to early 30s. He was wearing a T-shirt, jeans, canvas sneakers, an Army fatigue-type jacket (size small), a military-style black leather belt with a metal buckle and a medallion on a necklace, police said.

It's precisely that necklace that police hope will create new leads in the case.

In the 1980s, a man recognized a photo of the medallion printed in a newspaper article about the case. He told authorities in Burlington the medallion was made by a jewelry store in Boston for a motorcycle club on Church Street in the City of Poughkeepsie, police said.

The club was not named in the man's statement, but he had told authorities the medallion was given to all of its members. It was coined in either 1970 or 1972, and 1,500 were produced.

Police said they think the victim was a member of the club.

Burlington police Lt. Glen Mills said that, in recent years, police have not been able to track down the man who gave that statement. They do not know the name of the Poughkeepsie motorcycle club or the jewelry store in Boston.

The only link we had to New York was the medallion, and the group was supposedly from there,Mills said. The only thing that's really solid about this whole thing is the medallion. And who even knows if that's accurate, too?

He said the man does not match anyone reported missing from New York at the time. He said the man might have served in the military.

Mills said the department's priority is to identify the man so his family can be notified.

I'm sure he has some relatives,Mills said. His parents are probably pretty old right now.

Detective Sgt. Walt Horton of the City of Poughkeepsie police said he had heard of this case before. The department thinks the club was headquartered in a barn behind a house on the south side of Church Street, a short distance east of South Clinton Street, he said.

Efforts, years ago as well as recently, have been made to try and identify the club or anyone who might have information about the club,Horton said. However, those efforts, so far, have been unsuccessful.

Also, the construction of the arterial in the late 1970s changed the character of Church Street.
(The case) predated the highway,he said.

A problem is that time has passed, he said, and records from the mid-1970s aren't as accessible as more recently recorded information.
We're relying on people's recollections of whether or not the club existed and who from the area had been affiliated with the club,he said.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Mills at the Burlington Police Department: 781-272-1212.
http://doenetwork.org/cases/481umma.html