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#Post#: 1187--------------------------------------------------
COOS COUNTY JOHN DOE: WM, 50-80 - Found off Highway 101 in
Bandon, OR - Aug 26, 1972
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 10, 2020, 2:47 am
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HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/425UMOR4_LARGE.jpg
HTML https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/12289
The skeletal remains of an older Caucasian male were discovered
in a brushy area off of Hwy 101, north of Highway 101 and
Highway 42 junction.
#Post#: 1188--------------------------------------------------
Re: COOS COUNTY JOHN DOE: WM, 50-80 - Found off Highway 101 in
Bandon, OR - Aug 26, 1972
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 10, 2020, 2:48 am
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HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/425UMOR3_LARGE.jpg
#Post#: 1189--------------------------------------------------
Re: COOS COUNTY JOHN DOE: WM, 50-80 - Found off Highway 101 in
Bandon, OR - Aug 26, 1972
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 10, 2020, 2:48 am
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HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/425umor.html
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HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/425UMOR1.jpg<br
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HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/425UMOR2.jpg
Reconstructions of the victim
Date of Discovery: August 26, 1972
Location of Discovery: Bandon, Coos County, Oregon
Estimated Date of Death: Years prior
State of Remains: Not recognizable - Near complete or complete
skeleton
Cause of Death: Homicide by two gunshot wounds to the head.
Physical Description
Estimated Age: 50-80 years old
Race: White
Gender: Male
Height: 5'8" to 5'10"
Weight: Unknown
Hair Color: Unknown
Eye Color: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: No evidence of old fractures.
Identifiers
Dentals: Available. Full set of dentures engraved with
"S1214/66."
Fingerprints: Not available.
DNA: Samples submitted - Tests not complete.
Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Hat with hat-band, brown leather belt buckled at 42",
gray wool socks with red and green bands, and tan leather
lace-up Bilt Rite work type boots with white composition soles
that hook at the top for laces (labeled Nuron Crepe, Made in
USA).
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Key ring with the initial "R" and an
automobile key possibly for General Motors (GM).
Circumstances of Discovery
A citizen discovered the victim's skeletal remains in a wooded
area north Bandon off Highway 101.
Two .22 caliber bullets were found in the skull. Additionally,
two unspent .22 caliber shells and three coins were found in the
area, however, no weapon was found.
A possible clue to his identity is the victim's dentures. It is
speculated that they were made for a patient in Seattle (S) by
the US Public Health Service Hospital (USPHSH) in 1966 (/66).
The USPHSH is now closed. The hospital was established to care
for service men and families, leading to further speculation
that he may have been in the military or Merchant Marines at
some point, probably between 1920 and 1930, and possibly serving
during WWII.
Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: Bandon Police Department
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 541-347-2241
Agency Name: Coos County Sheriff's Office
Agency Contact Person: Detective Kelly Andrews
Agency Phone Number: 541-396-7800
Agency Case Number: 72-13
NCIC Case Number: N/A
NamUs Case Number: UP #12289
#Post#: 1190--------------------------------------------------
Re: COOS COUNTY JOHN DOE: WM, 50-80 - Found off Highway 101 in
Bandon, OR - Aug 26, 1972
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 10, 2020, 2:48 am
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HTML https://theworldlink.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/the-cold-case-of-bandon-s-john-doe-continues-to/article_f3088cb8-01a0-5b73-9476-0472b06b9d3e.html
The cold case of Bandon's John Doe continues to mystify
The case is so strange, military and international investigators
have taken a look
JILLIAN WARD The World Sep 14, 2018
COOS COUNTY — The cold case of Bandon’s John Doe has garnered
international curiosity.
Details of the case are so strange, the FBI, military
investigators and agencies from across the pond have tried to
find answers, but no one has been able to solve it.
It began on the evening of Aug. 26, 1972, when a teen stumbled
across a skeleton while he was peeling chittum bark in the woods
behind Ray’s Food Store in Bandon.
The 911 call came in that night around 8:25 p.m. to the Bandon
Police, which was smaller than it is today according to Capt.
Kelley Andrews with the Coos County Sheriff’s Office.
Because the Major Crime Team hadn’t been established yet, the
Bandon Police Department called in CCSO to assist. When the two
detectives arrived on scene, which was roughly 1,000 feet behind
Ray’s Food Store, they found a skeleton pulled apart by rats and
other animals over time.
“This person had been dead three to five years already,” Andrews
said.
When law enforcement ran metal detectors over the scene, they
discovered a car key with the emblem “R.” They collected what
remains they could, including what Andrews said is the most
important piece of evidence.
The skull had a small piece of metal in it next to a hole. In
the autopsy, the metal was determined to be a .22 caliber bullet
that didn’t penetrate the bone. The hole next to it was the same
size.
“He was shot twice in the head,” Andrews said. “They didn’t
recover a gun at the scene, which means it wasn’t a suicide
because if it was there would have been a gun right there.”
The remains were then turned over to the Oregon State Police
Crime Lab for examination. The skull also held a full set of
dentures, which held the strangest piece to the case.
“Both dentures, where you put the glue, had a number,” Andrews
said. “The numbers are like a tattoo. They are on a strip of
some sort, but it won’t come off.”
Andrews suggested the obvious: “That is a clue that we could
easily track down, right? They couldn’t do that back then.”
Then the unidentified white male, estimated to be between 60 and
70 years old and stood at 5-foot, 7-inches, became a cold case.
International Help
The case didn’t reemerge until 2001, when Andrews was promoted
to detective. While he was mostly working child abuse
investigations and was part of the Major Crime Team, he hadn’t
worked any homicides yet.
“At the time, we had a file cabinet with a drawer full of old,
deceased person cases,” Andrews remembered. “In the '50s, '60s
and '70s deaths were investigated much differently than now.
They would send deputies out still, but kept the files on a card
and that was it. This cabinet is where we kept some of them and
one day I started flipping through it, nostalgic of the place,
and came across this weird report from Aug. 26, 1972.”
When Andrews dusted it off and reopened it, he found that the
strangeness of the cold case was compounded by how
investigations were run in the '70s. Of course, he tried to
track down answers to the obvious questions, starting with who
went missing in the county in the time frame John Doe died.
“I don’t know if anyone went missing around here then, because
things were done differently,” he said. “If someone goes missing
now, the name goes into the database within 12 hours.”
When detectives went back to the scene and did follow up
investigations in the '70s, reports were written but are gone
now.
“I have one report from them, the initial six-page report, but
that’s it because there was no records management system back
then,” he explained. “Those records are lost. Bandon Police had
their reports still, which I have copies of and have added to
the case file, but there was no tracking like there is now. It’s
easier now to work more recent cold cases then ones that go this
far back.”
Witnesses from when the body was first found told detectives
they remembered seeing a vehicle three to five years earlier in
the area.
“He had a key with him, so where was his car?” Andrews said.
“Was it towed? Where did it go? There was no interconnectivity
like there is now.”
So he began reaching out to agencies for help, starting with the
American Dental Association. When he told them about the numbers
on the dentures, the association sent it out to its members.
“No one knows what those numbers are,” he said. “I spoke with
local denture makers and other professionals, but no one knows
what those numbers mean. We have no clue what they are.”
But there are theories. Some have wondered if the first four
numbers are the last four digits of a Social Security Number,
followed by the year '66.
“If that’s the case, no one can tell me who used to do this on
dentures,” Andrews said.
He didn’t stop at the American Dental Association, but reached
out to the FBI, OSP Crime Lab, the Naval Criminal Investigative
Service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the National
Crime Faculty in Europe that investigates serial murders.
When Andrews asked the National Crime Faculty for help, he also
had them reach out to the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force
because the original pathology had a note to talk with the RAF.
“But the RAF had no clue,” Andrews said.
There was the idea that the John Doe might be military, so
Andrews reached out to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
that does digs in Korea and Vietnam for lost soldiers. He asked
them if they have seen numbers like these in dentures before.
No, they hadn’t.
“There is another theory that has no basis that I can tell, but
a police officer from the state of Washington said that Merchant
Marines did this at a public service hospital in Seattle, which
burned down with all of its records,” Andrews said. “I don’t put
much water in that theory because if that was true, someone
would have come across it somewhere and no one has.”
He put it through the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension
Program, which tracks homicides to check for serial killers.
There were no matches.
“I worked with the FBI to get a list of who went missing that
met this John Does’ criteria,” Andrews said. “That list included
Jimmy Hoffa, but it wasn’t him either.”
He took it to the U.S. Army Dental Corps and recently took part
of the skull for mitochondrial DNA, which is now in the
database. It will get a hit if ever John Doe’s grandchildren get
arrested and their DNA goes into the system.
The case is so curious, NCIS assigned an investigator to the
case. They also came up with nothing.
Finally, the Doe Network got involved and did a Claymation of
what John Doe might have looked like. Today, forensic
anthropologists following the case say the Claymation is not
what he would have looked like.
However, the Doe Network put Andrews on a lead that led him to a
missing person’s case in Gooding County, Idaho. The man’s name
was Fred Miller.
But DNA testing turned down that lead as well.
“I got those results on Aug. 18, of 2015,” Andrews said. “This
cold case has been worked on throughout the past two decades. We
just keep picking it up and different people keep picking it up,
bringing new ideas to it. The next person to look at this will
call and ask if I remember it. My hope is to solve this and
begin the healing process for whoever this gentleman’s family
is. ‘Closure’ is an odd word, but it begins that healing
process.”
If you have information about Bandon’s John Doe, call CCSO at
541-396-7800.
#Post#: 1191--------------------------------------------------
Re: COOS COUNTY JOHN DOE: WM, 50-80 - Found off Highway 101 in
Bandon, OR - Aug 26, 1972
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 10, 2020, 2:48 am
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML http://rebelcherokee.labdiva.com/bndn7213.html
HTML http://rebelcherokee.labdiva.com/aerialsite.jpg
After carefully measuring and photographing the site, the
remains were carefully bagged and marked. The site was then gone
over with a metal detector. The remains were sent to the Oregon
State Police Crime Detection Lab in Eugene OR. The forensic
report dated August 29, 1972, states:
1. Victim is a Caucasian male, approximately 5'8".
2. Date of Death, approximately 3-5 years prior.
3. Age at death: 60 years to 70 years.
4. Unknown color of hair and eyes.
5. Cause of death; gunshot to the head.
A bullet hole was evident in the right temple area. A 22 caliber
bullet was found in the cavity, and a similar one removed from
the right frontal bone. No weapon was found at the site.
Personal items found were scraps of the clothing, 7" lace up
men's boots, work type, tan with a tag reading "Bilt Rite, Nuron
Crepe, Made in USA", the soles were white crepe, a belt buckled
at 42". No other identification was found.
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