/r/gratefuldoe
Centralized location for discussions regarding the profiling of unidentified persons in the United States.
This subreddit was originally created as an open forum to discuss and share information pertaining to the Grateful Doe case. It is now dedicated to investigating and raising awareness of all unidentified persons cases.
As a community, we strive to work together, to bring about change, and to utilize resources such as social media to close the cases of unidentified people. We hope to return all of the names to the unidentified persons that we profile here, to restore their dignity, and to bring closure to their loved ones.
To do this, we need your help. Please feel free to post any information, discussions surrounding the facts, theories and news articles. We strongly support new members and hope to continue the growth of our little community.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to message your moderators or make a post. We are always happy to help.
In memory of Jason Callahan.
Click here to view the subreddit rules
NEW READERS: Visit links for case information
Yonkers Jane Doe - Identified!
Waukesha County John Doe - Identified!
Valentine Jane Doe - Identified!
Fond du Lac County Jane Doe - Identified!
Clark County Jane Doe - Identified!
Allenstown Jane Does - Identified!
Regina John Doe - Identified!
Ashley County John Doe - Identified!
Huntington Beach Jane Doe - Identified!
Annandale Jane Doe - Identified!
John 'Clinton' Doe - Identified!
The Grateful Doe - Identified!
/r/gratefuldoe
Varzo John Doe was a young man who was hit and killed by a freight train at the train station of Varzo, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola on April 30, 2011. He was seen alive at the station the day prior at 10 PM, asking in French about the next train to Domodossola-Milan. According to witnesses, he appeared agitated and could not understand who was speaking to him.
Characteristics
Short brown hair,Brown eyes, Fair complexion.
Slim physique, described as sportsman-like.
Staggering walking gait.
18-30 years old. 180 cm/ ~ 5‘11.
Clothing Black 'Canda' boxers with vertical gray stripes. Black "Tex T-Shirt Wearing" t-shirt. Black 'Reebok' trousers. White terry socks. Brown-green 'Merrell' trekking shoes. Glasses.
Clothing and PostMortem: https://www.chilhavisto.rai.it/dl/clv/Corpi_senza_nome/ContentSet-e9c91834-8845-4aee-aba8-b413a1332b38.html
According to his case file he died to overdose. He is involved or is possibly in the middle of engaging in what what described as sexual bondage when he passed away.
This got me thinking if he was doing it by himself or if he was participating with another individual or perhaps with a group and when this man died his sexual partner or partners panicked and left the body.
https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Larimer_County_John_Doe_(1997)
Two men with the same surname, same hair colour with nearly identical builds & nearly the same age disappear from Detroit months apart in 1976 with both of them seemingly just losing contact with their families. I can't find any other info about them online either, & there seems to be no pictures of either of them available.
To add to the strangeness another Collins went missing in Detroit two years prior: 25 year old Diane Patricia Collins. Were these three people related in some fashion? What are the odds three people roughly the same age with the same surname disappear from the same place in a two year span?
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/20924/details?nav
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/20926/details?nav
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/26943/details?nav
In 1921, a seemingly panicked and distraught couple in Waukesha, WI, approached a man working for the O’Laughlin company asking if he had seen a young boy. The woman, donning a red sweater, seemed to plead with the stranger, while her presumed partner stared off at what appeared to be nothing specific, maybe looking for the boy. With nobody able to answer to where the supposed young boy might have been, the couple left in a Ford vehicle and were never seen again. If only we had been able to know what the man with the woman was thinking when he stared off “nothing,” we may have been able to understand why five weeks later, on March 8th, 1921, the body of a young boy was found in the very quarry that lay in the direction of where the man had been staring. The poor boy was badly beaten, appearing to have suffered from blunt force trauma before being left in the water to die. What came to be even more of a surprise to many was the boy having been fully dressed in clothing that was known to be particularly expensive, such as Munsing brand underwear. In efforts to learn anything about the unidentified boy, the local authorities had his body put on display at a local funeral home and offered a cash reward of $1,000 (an equivalent today of nearly $18,000), to no avail. Nobody came forward to identify the young boy, and nobody was ever able to identify or find the couple that had been searching for a boy just weeks prior. The investigation grew colder by the day. A local woman, Minnie Conrad, raised money to have the child buried in Prairie Home Cemetery, Waukesha, Waukesha County Wisconsin, while the police began moving on to other cases. She was later buried in the same cemetery. Additionally, a woman in a dark veil was reportedly seen visiting the boy’s resting place for a short while, on multiple occasions, though no time frame of these sightings was ever given.
One theory is that the boy is Henry Homer Lemay. People rumor that the boy’s father killed him, his mother, as well as one of his exes and attempting to kill the third, or so we speculate, as her body was never found. The citizens of Waukesha affectionately dubbed the John Doe boy as “Little Lord Fauntleroy” and his grave is still placed in Prairie Home Cemetery.
Links: findagrave- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5481656/little_lord-fauntleroy Doe network- https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1377umwi.html
There is unfortunately no NaMus for this boy.
If this is true I’m glad she finally has her name back, may she rest easy❤️🩹! Maybe later on more info will come out! Been following this case for awhile now, definitely one of the case I wanted to see solved.
I am happy to announce that the DNA Doe Project has been able to identify Hill Building John Doe 1985 as Frank Nicholas Augenti. Below is some additional information about our work on this identification:
Nearly 40 years after the body of a man was discovered in an abandoned building in St. Paul, the DNA Doe Project has identified him as Frank Nicholas Augenti. Born in 1951 in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, Augenti was 33 years old at the time of his death, and his last known address was in New York City.
On February 7, 1985, the frozen remains of Caucasian man between 20-40 years old were found on the second floor of the abandoned JJ Hill Building in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was 5’ 11” and 180 pounds. The man was believed to have been homeless, and he died of exposure weeks to months prior to being discovered.
With no clues as to his identity, the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office brought this case to the DNA Doe Project, whose expert volunteer investigative genetic genealogists work pro bono to identify John and Jane Does. A team began working on this case in May 2024 and, after just two days of research, they honed in on the identity of the John Doe.
“It was immediately clear from the DNA results that the unidentified man had Italian heritage,” said Sara Hoffman, team co-leader. “When we came across Frank Augenti, we saw that all four of his grandparents had immigrated to America from Italy.”
Further research into Frank Augenti revealed that he had dropped off the radar in the 1980s, and the team on this case found further evidence to suggest that he could be Hill Building John Doe. His name was presented to the medical examiner’s office and, in August 2024, this identification was confirmed.
“We were very fortunate that a cousin had chosen to upload their DNA results to GEDmatch,” said Lisa Ivany, team co-leader. “Without their DNA, this case would still be unsolved. Italian Americans are underrepresented on the DNA databases we have access to, but the more that people upload their DNA results to GEDmatch, FTDNA or DNA Justice, the more cases we’ll be able to solve.”
The DNA Doe Project is grateful to the groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office, who entrusted the case to the DNA Doe Project; Astrea Forensics for library preparation; Azenta Life Sciences for sequencing; Kevin Lord of Saber Investigations for bioinformatics; GEDmatch Pro for providing their database; audiochuck, the parent company of the Crime Junkie Podcast, and 8 individual donors for providing funding for this case; and DDP’s dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring all our Jane and John Does home.
I am happy to announce that the DNA Doe Project has been able to identify Elizabethtown John Doe 2012 as Mitchell L. Mendelson. Below is some additional information about our work on this identification:
Skeletal remains recovered in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania in 2012 have been identified as Mitchell L. Mendelson, who lived in the area before he died. Mendelson grew up in New York State, and had lived in Alabama, Virginia, and Massachusetts earlier in his life.
When investigators recovered remains near the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown in November 2012, they were unable to immediately identify the man wearing a camouflage t-shirt and jeans. The case went cold, and it would be more than a decade until the Lancaster County Coroner’s Office decided to work with DNA Doe Project to try investigative genetic genealogy to identify the John Doe.
Prior DNA analysis had been completed, so the laboratory process to develop a DNA profile to upload to GEDmatch Pro and FamilyTreeDNA was completed quickly and the team of five DNA Doe Project volunteers worked 80 hours over 4 days to find Mendelson’s branch of the family tree.
The initial assessment of the Doe’s genetic ancestry showed that the case would be a challenge - he was 100% Ashkenazi Jewish. Genetic genealogy is more difficult with the Ashkenazi Jewish population due to many previous generations of marriage within the same community.
"When we see Jewish DNA in the profile, we try to assign specialist genetic genealogists to the case," said Executive Director of Case Management Jennifer Randolph. "Adina Newman set up a strategy that had the team focus on the one top match - a strategy that proved to be very effective in this case."
Building a family tree from the critical third cousin match took researchers back to Mendelson’s great-great-grandparents, and from there they researched the descendants of those 16 people until they found a few important clues. One of those descendants, Mitchell Mendelson, was in the right place within the family tree, had lived in Elizabethtown, and also matched the gender, age, religion, and physical characteristics of the John Doe.
"We were fortunate that the closest DNA relative to our John Doe was a genealogy buff and family historian who had done a very comprehensive and accurate family tree," said volunteer investigative genetic genealogist Rich Capen.
Mendelson was a columnist for the Birmingham Post Herald in Alabama, and appeared on an episode of The Alabama Experience on public television in 1992. It’s unclear what drew him back north to Elizabethtown. He was about 60 years old when he died.
The DNA Doe Project is grateful to the groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the Lancaster County Coroner’s Office, who entrusted the case to the DNA Doe Project; The Center for Human Identification at University of North Texas for DNA extraction; Astrea Forensics for sample prep for whole-genome sequencing; Azenta Life Sciences for whole-genome sequencing; Kevin Lord for bioinformatics; GEDmatch Pro, FTDNA for providing their databases; our generous donors who joined our mission and contributed to this case; and DDP’s dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring all our Jane and John Does home.
Roughly in the early 2000s, young to middle-aged Caucasian woman with midlength dirty blond hair and shallow brown eyes, wearing a pair of Lee brand jeans and a brown tank top with lettuce hem was found deceased in or close to an electrical substation off a minor highway in Sacramento County or the surrounding area. This woman's post mortem photo may have been used in screamer/horror content in the mid 2000s/early 2010s. This woman may be the mother of my friend from college who's mother went missing circa 2003. Circumstances: October 2002 my friend's mother tells friend's father she is going to stay with a friend in Fresno for a month - has history of drug abuse, may have been seen living in homeless encampment later that same year. Last communication was January 2003 when she was spending the night at a woman's shelter in or near Sacramento County, women's shelter was contacted during that time and no woman by my friend's mother's name was found to have stayed there. About six years ago my friend and I found a possible match for his mother; white female found in or near Sacramento County, death likely from blunt force trauma, facial features appear very similar, distortion to body likely caused by drug use and trauma from death. Body found likely hours after death. Information about vicinity included "[inside/near] electrical substation, [highway] Sacramento County". No contact for agency from what I can remember. Caucasian female about 170-200lbs height undetermined but likely around 5'1. Post mortem photo is very jarring and may have been used as a screamer image (image was linked to shock website DocumentingReality circa 2007, link now removed and unable to find image). Depicts white female with incised wounds between lips on left side and around tear duct on left eye causing eyeball to appear popped from socket. Woman may have also had corneal edema on left eyeball (my friend's mother may have had radiation therapy causing corneal edema). Post mortem photograph with minimal information were posted to Namus.gov and DoeNetwork in close proximity to one another. I cannot find this woman's information anywhere online. Her first and last name cannot be linked to these postings and I am unsure if there is a valid missing person's report open for her. I do not remember the serial number for this Jane Doe. Please let me know how (he) could go about finding information about this Jane Doe and potentially contacting coroner or agency from which this woman was found. Thanks.
I've submitted this, considering Louise Zunker fits *almost* all of the boxes for the doe found on November 18th, 1984.
Doe: estimated to be younger than 60 years old, roughly 30-55
Louise: 56 at the age she went missing.
Doe: Estimated 5'4" - 5'8"
Louise: 5'5"
Doe: estimated to weigh about 125lbs
Louise: 125-135lbs
Doe: estimated to have been dead for at least 3 years, but at most 10 (1974-1981)
Louise: Missing as of August 17, 1976
The remains of the doe discovered were described as a "near complete or complete skeleton" with a gunshot wound to the head, confirmed to have been from a .22 caliber.
This case always struck me and I've been desperate for answers ever since I could remember, having grown up in the area and hearing the extremely occasional old tale of the day the body was found and how 'everyone's forgotten about it.' These comments have been sparing, all from total strangers from the area, usually in passing, be it acquaintances family or customers at jobs I've had. I have no intention of stopping this search until I know her name.
Louise's case caught my eye while I was searching, especially after some reading about her last sightings. Missing from Portage, WI, the doe being found a mere hour and a half away.
I'd love to not only name the doe, but bring Louise's large family some closure as well.
Any thoughts?
Links:
NAMUS for LOUISE N ZUNKER: https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/84012/details?nav
DOE NETWORK: https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/software/mp-main.html?id=4952DFWI
JANE DOE of MUKWONAGO:
NAMUS: https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/7405/details?nav
DOE NETWORK: https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/software/main.html?id=811UFWI
Edit: I’ve received word back from both NaMus and the doe network that this comparison had not been made and they’re both investigating. Fingers crossed!!!!
How does one recommend going about this? Is sending the affiliated coroner’s office the best move? I’ve attempted in the past and quite literally never received any response. Email, phone. If anyone has suggestions on the best and most efficient way to submit possible matches I would GREATLY appreciate!! Keep sleuthing sleuths!
How do they decide which infant does to attempt to identify through DNA profiling? Is it the county the infant resided in having the resources to test? Or some other means? If anyone has any information on the process I’d love to know.
I’ve been curious for awhile as an infant doe was found 20 years ago in my neighborhood growing up and ivr thought of him over the years. I’ve seen so many other infant does be identified recently with DNA and I’m wondering if he’ll ever get a chance.
On July 16, 1969 at 11:20 pm police responded to a structure fire off hwy 64 in an unincorporated area between Los Angeles and San Diego (Perris, CA). They found two people, later identified as young black women, dead inside the building. Both bodies were badly burned and naked - if they had been wearing shoes or clothes when they entered the building, they had burned off in the fire. The coroner would determine that one of the victims had died in the fire, shortly before police found them, while the other victim had died earlier that day. Police believed that they were both murdered.
If the reported demographics are correct, and - the bigger if - they were reported missing in NAMUS, then there are four people they could be: Winnefred Jeanette Freeman, Cellastine Wade, Virginia Grier Burton, and Adele Marie Wells.
The Unidentified People
Victim 1 died in the fire 30 minutes before the police found her. She was approximately 5’3” and 110 pounds, between 17 and 25 years old. She had all four wisdom teeth (unerupted) plus a rotting incisor on the upper left side. Her face was recognizable.
Victim 2 was dead when the fire started. Her approximate time of death was earlier that day at 11:20 am, 12 hours before the police found her. She was approximately 5’2” and 125 pounds, between 25 and 30 years old. There was significant crowding in her bottom front teeth and two of her bottom molars had been removed, leaving gaps that had not been closed in the time since. She had all four wisdom teeth and one was beginning to come through. She was unrecognizable due to traumatic injuries.
According to NAMUS and the DOE project, their deaths were being investigated as murders - police believed that someone or multiple someones had placed the women in the building and then lit it on fire. The coroner report states that ‘Preliminary investigation in 1969 indicates that it was believed that both women were possibly transported from the Los Angeles area.’ Police had identified two suspects at the time.
Conflicting Information
Namus and the doe project report that police believed both women had been drugged (“The fire is believed have been intentionally set after the two drugged females were place inside.”)
The coroner report does not necessarily contest this however it does state that “one of the victims had a substantial amount of drugs in her system at the time of her death” AND it does not say whether the other woman had any drugs in her system.
A Facebook post on the page says that victim two, who died 12 hours before the fire, was the one who had the significant amount of drugs in her system, although I could not find this information in any of the sources, even using way back machine to check them at the time the post was made.
Potential Matches
If these women were under 30, as the coroner concluded, the earliest possible date of last contact would be 1939. Wisdom teeth typically erupt between 12 and 26, so the official age estimates sound about right to me.
In NAMUS, there are nine black girls and women who went missing between Jan 1 1939 and July 16 1969. Two are probably too young (11 and 14 in 1969). Two are too old (31 and 43 in 1969) and also two inches outside the height range (5’5” and 5’0”). One is significantly taller than either victim (5' 5" - 5' 7"). That leaves four. One of the four, Adele Marie Wells, disappeared from flint Michigan when she was 7 nearly a decade prior, so I believe she is the least likely candidate. I will focus on the other three.
Winnefred Jeanette Freeman was reported missing from Portland, Oregon on May 8, 1968. She was last seen getting into her car with a man her mother* didn’t recognize. She was 20 at the time, within the age range for both victims. And she was 5’4”, an inch above victim 1’s approximate height and two inches above victim 2’s.
Cellastine Wade was last seen in Jersey city, NJ around April 26, 1968. She never came home from work. Her height is listed as 5' 3" - 5' 5", which is in range for both victims, as is her age, 18.
Virginia Grier Burton was last seen in Grantville, Georgia around August 1, 1967. She left her mother's house with an acquaintance to pay bills and never returned. She was 5' 2" and, at the time, 27 years old, putting her just one year outside the expected age range for both victims (31 in 1969).
There have been no rule-outs for either of the Jane Does and only one rule out across the three missing people (Winnefred was not the Columbia Doe).
Sources
Unidentified People:
Winnefred Jeanette Freeman:
Cellastine Wade:
Virginia Grier Burton:
Poking around on Namus & came across Naman Don Wathen https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/case/MP76682
Overall, not a ton of detail and some missing info I can’t seem to find, but—
I wonder if there’s any chance he’s UP78520 (https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/case/UP78520). Ages mostly line up, height, hair color, general geography, timeline all are reasonable. The weight is a discrepancy, but I’m not sure how recent or accurate the weight in Naman’s profile is (or if the UP’s weight was inputted accurately). The UP has several tattoos listed, but only notes the location of one of them.
Naman’s Namus profile indicates tattoos found on a DOC site; but I can’t seem to find that site or any details on tattoos.
Maybe a discrepancy is that Namus says Naman had at least one tattoo on his left arm, but the only noted location on the UP is the right arm.
There are no exclusions on either Naman’s page or the UP’s.
Thoughts?
Jeremy Randle: https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/116500/attachments?nav
West Hollywood John Doe: https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/119554/details?nav
This individual’s skeletal remains were found in a tent in South Seattle in October of 2022 and I’ve never been able to get them out of my head.
From King County: “Adult, presumably white biologically male, but may have identified as female based on clothing and belongings
Short-to-medium length brown hair but were wearing a long blond wig at the time of their death
Age: estimated between 45 and 60 Height: between 5'5" and 6' Healed injuries to the ribs, pelvis, and feet, possibly as the result of an accident during life
Found wearing a black bra and fishnet stockings with dark-colored shorts, a light-colored top with birds, floral designs, and a heart-shaped lock printed on it, paired with a dark-colored outer shirt, a dark-colored hoodie, black high-heeled boots, and a makeshift leopard-print belt”
Someone knows this person. But who are they? I have a strong suspicion that their NAMUS or other listings will be for a male individual and that they might have been estranged for some time, based on the circumstances of their passing.
Any ideas?
More from King County: https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/dph/health-safety/medical-examiner/unidentified-remains
Woman’s body found at national historic site in Hyde Park. (I know the photo isn’t good quality but it is all they have released.)
Unidentified Deceased Hyde Park, New York
12/6/24 “Police have classified the unidentified woman’s death as “suspicious” after she was found lying face down on the east shore of the Hudson River, south of Bard Rock on Vanderbilt Road in the Hyde Park hamlet of Staatsburg.”
Female, Age: Mid 50s-Mid 60’s
H: 5’5” ,
W: 112lbs
Brown Eyes, Gray Hair
No Scars or Tattoos
Anyone with any information regarding a missing woman in the Hyde Park area is asked to please contact Investigator Filippini at 845-677-7300 and refer case # NY2400970235.News Article: https://midhudsonnews.com/.../womans-body-found-at.../...
https://www.missingkids.org/poster/ncmu/1184501/1
Otay Jane Doe was a teenager between 14-18 years old. Most likely younger 14/15. She was found on valentines day of 1978 after having been poisoned by Meperidine and burned. There were signs of long-term abuse, but also dental care, including a root canal. She had brown hair and brown eyes. One her her ears had a malformation that made it smaller than the other. Both ears were pierced.
NAMUS Link: https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/17764/details?nav
On December 10, 1979, an elderly woman, estimated to be between 50 and 65 years old, was discovered deceased, having been beaten and strangled, in the basement of 723 N. Corinthian Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This street is now known as 23rd Street, and a parking lot stands where the house once was. The woman was 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighed approximately 105 pounds. She had medium-length brown-gray hair, with some strands woven into a thick red-brown wig.
At the time of discovery, she was dressed in a variety of clothing, including a brown long-sleeved short coat, a heavily soiled brown sloth coat, a blue, grey, white, and tan long-sleeved cotton shirt, a heavily soiled red jacket with a shirt in red, blue, and yellow, a zipper-closed long-sleeved jacket, a babushka, pantyhose, slacks, and black and blue house slippers.
Upon examining the area via Google Maps, it is observed that a church, named Saint John the Baptist, is situated across the street from the former location of the house. While the church is identified online as a Baptist church, an Orthodox cross on its steeple suggests it might be an Orthodox Church. According to the plaque on the building, it has existed since 1931, indicating it was present when the deceased was found. Given that the deceased was wearing a babushka, a headscarf commonly worn by older women of the Orthodox faith, I’m of whether she might have been a parishioner of the church and whether law enforcement inquired with the church regarding her identity.
I am more curious about the events leading to the discovery of the deceased as Namus does not have much to share in terms of information around circumstances. Was the house abandoned, if not who owned it? How was the body found so soon, and who found it?
Anyone with a newspaper subscription, if you got the time, could please you look for articles pertaining to this case, I want to know more about the discovery of this Jane doe. The Philadelphia inquirer would be a good place to start.
Does anyone who's family came from this area recognize him? They lost his body and records in hurricane Katrina, his suicide note haunts me in ways I really can't explain, he was clearly extremely intelligent and he had empathy (we know this because of how he wrote his suicide note on the off chance his parents found him instead).
This case has been on my mind since I saw it and I really want to know who this guy was. :( Ive never been this effected by someone's writing like this before, his suicide not was 4 pages and we only have a single page left.
He was found in a persimmon tree without his shoes on hanging from a bedsheet.
His doe network page https://doenetwork.org/cases/3832umla.html