Author Topic: BIRDSBORO JOHN DOE: BM, 30-40, found along the Schuylkill River - 24 June 1997  (Read 130 times)

Akoya

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Victim was found along the Schuylkill River in the area of Old River Rd.

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Akoya

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https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/12188



Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP12188 Male, Black / African American

Date Found June 24, 1997
Location Found Birdsboro, Pennsylvania
Estimated Age Range 30-40 Years

Case Information

Case Numbers
NCMEC Number--
ME/C Case Number 97-1330

Demographics
Sex Male
Race / EthnicityBlack / African American
Estimated Age Group Adult - Pre 40
Estimated Age Range 30-40 Years
Estimated Year of Death--
Estimated PMI--
Height 6' 1"(73 inches) , Measured
Weight 200 lbs, Estimated

Circumstances
Type Unidentified Deceased
Date Found June 24, 1997
NamUs Case Created February 26, 2014
Agency QA Reviewed--

Location Found Map
Street Address Schuylkill River North of Old River Rd.Birdsboro, Pennsylvania 19508
County Berks County
GPS Coordinates--
Circumstances of RecoveryVictim was found along the Schuylkill River in the area of Old River Rd.
Details of Recovery
Inventory of Remains All parts recovered
Condition of Remains Not recognizable - Decomposing/putrefaction

Physical Description
Hair Color Black
Head Hair Description Curley
Distinctive Physical Features
No Known Information

Clothing and Accessories

Clothing
Brown Colored Gap Trousers 34Waist x 32Length (Cuffed). Blue/Green Colored Long Sleeve Front ButtonThermal Shirt/Button-Down Collar. Multi-Colored Boxer Style Undershorts One Color Being Red
On the Body

Footwear
Low Cut White Addidas Sneakers Blue Addidas Emblem, Size 13
On the Body

Case Contributors
Joel Bonilla, Medicolegal Death Investigator
No Agency Entered

Terri Straka, Medicolegal Death Investigator
Berks County Coroner's Office

Akoya

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Victim was found along the Schuylkill River in the area of Old River Rd.
Street Address - Schuylkill River North of Old River Rd.Birdsboro, Pennsylvania 19508



Old River Rd
Birdsboro, PA 19508

Akoya

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http://www.readingeagle.com/news/ar...hope-to-attach-names-to-bodies-left-unclaimed

MONDAY APRIL 14, 2014 12:01 AM
Berks County investigators hope to attach names to bodies left unclaimed

WRITTEN BY STEVEN HENSHAW

On a summer evening nearly 17 years ago, Robeson Township Police Chief Mark T. Phillips took a call at home from one of his patrolmen after two fishermen discovered a body floating in the Schuylkill River.

The body was found snagged in some branches June 24, 1997, along the south bank near River Road, opposite an area known by locals as Robeson Crossing.

Due to the condition of the body and its foul odor, it was evident it had been in the river for weeks, Phillips said. The torso was severely decomposed, and the head was just a skull.

A pathologist determined the body was likely that of a black man, 20 to 30 years old, 6 feet tall and more than 200 pounds. No evidence of a homicide or anything suspicious was found.

Efforts by Phillips and the Berks County coroner's office to identify the body through fingerprints were futile, and there were no reports of a missing man matching the description.

The man's bones were stored in the Reading Hospital morgue under the name "John Doe."

To this day, no one has ever called to ask if the body belonged to a missing relative, Phillips said. He figures the man was homeless - perhaps a drifter who came through the area and died along the river and his body floated away when the water rose.

Chief never forgot

Over the years the case fell off the radar of the coroner' office. In fact, the current administration could find no record of the 1997 John Doe when it undertook a review of its John/Jane Doe cases.

That effort started soon after Coroner Dennis J. Hess began his first term in office in 2006. The goal of the review, which continues, is to collect DNA, fingerprints, dental records, and other information useful to police and relatives of the missing, to upload into a national database of the unidentified dead.

But the Robeson case was rarely out of Phillips' sight. The brown accordion file folder hasn't moved from atop Phillips' desk since 1997.

Phillips, who has been chief of the township force for 30 years, said: "It bothers me that there's somebody out there who might have a loved one, that hasn't been in contact with that person for years. It really bothers me we haven't been able to put a name to this person."



Unlike the 1997 John Doe, there was a file of the 1992 Jane Doe at the coroner's office. But Straka could find no documentation of what happened to the bones.

"I pulled the record ... and read the file," Straka said. "I read it six times and I said, 'I'm not finding out where the body is. There's no indication of a disposition. We have Jane Doe who was found in the field, and we have no record of where she went.'"

Straka emailed former Coroner William Fatora, who was in office when both sets of remains were found five years apart, but he had no recollection of where the remains ended up. Deputy Coroner Joel Bonilla, who is assigned to work with Straka on the Doe cases, contacted cemeteries to see if the remains were stored in a vault, but no one had any clues.

A few weeks of searching for information led nowhere.

Other case leads to find

A conversation with the pathologist during an unrelated autopsy last year provided the break they needed.

Straka asked Dr. Neil A. Hoffman if he had any idea what happened to the woman. Hoffman had performed the autopsy on Jane Doe in 1992.

Hoffman thought about it for a moment, then mentioned there was an unmarked box in the upper drawer of one of the morgue coolers.

They decided to have a look and found the cardboard box containing a set of bones in brown paper bags labeled by black marker according to body part. There was no indication anywhere to whom those sets of remains belonged.

"We got kind of excited," Hoffman recalled. "I then went to my file of 10,000 or so slides and sure enough, under the number Terri (Straka) gave me I found the slides' from the woman's case.

At the time of the discovery, other items buried in that drawer caught Straka's attention: items marked "coroner" and "John Doe."

"Following that autopsy ... I already knew I'm going to come back later because there are things indicating 'coroner,' " Straka said. "So Joel (Bonilla) and I come back on a separate day to log and see what else we have and we end up finding remains for a John Doe in 1997 for which we have no record at all."

Hoffman said the coroner's office at the time probably asked for the bones to be stored at the morgue while the investigation continued. But years went by and the pathology department was never given further instructions on what to do with them.

"We certainly do store things here," said Hoffman, who is semiretired but still performs autopsies at Reading Hospital. "This is one of the things we do for the county and have done for many, many years."

Hess said it's unknown what happened to the record for the '97 John Doe.

Today, all unidentified remains in Pennsylvania are required to be tested for DNA so the information can be uploaded into NamUS. Since the database didn't exist until a few years ago, older cases have languished.

Hess said the shoddy paperwork and labeling of evidence is reflective of the overall mismanagement of the coroner's office during that era. Fatora, the former coroner, and two of his deputies went to prison for falsifying records to inflate the number of bodies they transported in their personal vehicles in a scheme to collect fees they did not earn. Bodies are no longer transported in personal vehicles.

Straka had to reconstruct the John Doe '97 file for the coroner's office and NamUS.

Luckily, she only had to visit the Robeson Police Department.

"I called Robeson Township and the secretary said Chief Phillips had this file on his desk," Straka said. "I was so impressed with that. I said we need to come down and see what you have because we have nothing."

She sent a sample for DNA testing to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification on March 17. Even if no match is found, she said, the unidentified man's DNA profile will be available to police anywhere, as well as anyone looking for a long-missing relative.

Akoya

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http://www.readingeagle.com/news/ar...hope-to-attach-names-to-bodies-left-unclaimed

Unidentified victims

Data about these unidentified people whose remains were found in Berks County have been added or are being added to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System:
Jan. 1, 1977: White male, 25-35 years old, long brown curly hair and full beard; found in a cave near the Pinnacle, a scenic overlook along the Appalachian Trail in Kempton; manner of death undetermined.
Aug. 22, 1968: White female, 20-30 years old, 5 feet 3 inches, 125-130 pounds, brown hair with red tint; found near Route 82, Caernarvon Township, not far from the Chester County line; shot five times in chest and abdomen and once in left temple.
April 18, 1969: White female, about 21 years old, 5 feet 1 inch, brown hair; skeletal remains found in French Creek State Park not far from the victim found Aug. 22, 1968; police believe the two deaths are related and occurred at roughly the same time.
July 15, 1988: Mixed race, light-skinned female, 25-32 years old, 4 feet 10 inches to 5 feet 3 inches, dark brown hair; skeletal remains found in shallow grave in French Creek State Park in Union Township; cause of death undetermined but considered suspicious; death not believed to be related to the previous victims.
June 3, 1992: White female, 40-45 years old, 5 feet to 5 feet 3 inches, about 120 pounds, brown hair; skeletal remains found buried in soybean field in Windsor Township near Lenhartsville; cause of death undetermined but considered suspicious.
Feb. 15, 1993: Newborn white boy apparently born hours earlier found in trash container in Old Main at Kutztown University; cause of death undetermined but considered suspicious.
June 24, 1997: Black man, late 20s or early 30s, about 6 feet, more than 200 pounds, size 13 shoe; found floating in the Schuylkill River in Robeson Township; cause of death undetermined but considered suspicious.
Nov. 25, 1997: Black man, 40 to 60 years old, about 5 feet tall, 175 pounds; found in 100 block of South Sixth Street; wearing overcoat with fake black fur collar; black baseball cap with the word "Graystone" on it; cause of death ruled as drug overdose.
Sept. 25, 2000: White or light-skinned Latino female, at least 25 years old, 5 feet 4 inches, about 140 pounds, dyed or bleached blonde hair; found at Ninth and Laurel streets; cause of death undetermined but considered suspicious.
Aug. 21, 2001: Black female, 25-35 years old, about 5 feet 5 inches, 110-130 pounds; found in trash bag along Quarry Road in Caernarvon Township; cause of death undetermined but considered suspicious; death not believed to be related to previous victims found in area.
June 25, 2003: White man, 25-45 years old, about 5 feet 8 inches, 170 pounds, brown or reddish-brown thinning hair, full, close-cropped beard, left ear pierced; found by two people tubing in the Schuylkill River near Fisher Dam Road in Perry Township; cause of death could not be determined.
Sources: Berks County coroner's office and National Missing and Unidentified Persons System



Contact Steven Henshaw: 610-371-5028 or shenshaw@readingeagle.com.

Akoya

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Birdsboro
Pennsylvania 19508

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