Identified! DE - Dover, WhtMale UP10778, 35-45, in woods, Nov'12 - Ian Withrow

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/10778
**WARNING POSTMORT TATTOO PHOTOS AT LINK**

Date Found: Nov. 2, 2012

WHite Male,est. 69 height
weight cannot est.

Est. postmortem: 3 months

Circumstances
Location Found
GPS coordinates 39.19020·N x 75.55024·W
Address 1 Wooded area south of Frazier Substation, approximately 1/10 mile southwest of the intersection of W. Rustic Lane & Crawford Carroll Avenue
Address 2
City Dover
State Delaware
Zip code 19901
County Kent
Circumstances
Body found in a wooded area behind the Lowe’s home improvement warehouse in the vicinity of W. Rustic Lane and Crawford Carroll Drive in Dover, DE. Body was hanging from a tree and in an advanced state of decomposition such that the remains were skeletonized.

Physical
Hair color Brown
Head hair Light brown hair with visible rare gray strands is present and adherent to the calvarium measuring up to 4" in length.
Body hair
Facial hair
Left eye color Unknown or Missing
Right eye color Unknown or Missing
Eye description

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No other distinctive body features
Distinctive features as described below

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Amputations
Deformities
Scars and marks
Tattoos Due to advanced decomposition, mummified skin was extremely dark/discolored, which completely obscured any potential view of tattoo identifiers. However, extensive restorative efforts successfully transformed portions of decomposed skin to near natural pigmentation thus making visible multiple distinct, discernible tattoos. Each tattoo is depicted in the images section and generally described here and with the image.

Location: Left Shoulder
General impression of tattoo design: Polychromatic. Court jester/joker & four aces with card suits. Not likely to be of recent design. May be professional.

Location: Left mid-forearm
General impression of tattoo design: Monochromatic. featureless face with a tongue hanging out of a mouth and 2 X’s for eyes. likely non-professional and not recent. May be club related.

Location: Left wrist
General impression of tattoo design: Monochromatic. Celtic cross (in a Celtic knot). Professional.

Location: Right bicep
General impression of tattoo design: Polychromatic. “Laugh Now - Cry Later” type of symbol with hand and flames, possibly club related.

Location: Upper right shoulder
General impression of tattoo design: Monochromatic, various letters/words. First word appears to be “Ruby”.

Location: Back of neck
General impression of tattoo design: Monochromatic. Possibly a “hook”, likely non-professional and not recent.
Location: Upper right shoulder
General impression of tattoo design: Polychromatic “Pumpkin”, likely by a professional artist.

Looked for Pumpkin tattoos around that time/location and found this:

http://www.wdel.com/story.php?id=45642

Haven't been able to find any updates, missing person reports, etc for him but the circumstance and general demographics fit pretty closely.

Anyone have a connection with LE in DE?

Seems like a good connection to me. A quick Google search didn't turn anything else up about the missing man - no obit, no follow up info. Very odd.

The ages are a bit off, but... wouldn't be the first time that happened.

I'll see if I can reach out to Hal Brown.

http://starlocalmedia.com/celinarecord/news/sheriff-s-deputy-assists-in-delaware-mystery/article_e076928e-fe53-11e3-8186-0019bb2963f4.html

Denton County Sheriff’s Deputy Leslie Willingham is lending her talents and training as a Forensic Artist to assist in identifying an unknown person who was found dead in Kent County, Delaware in the Dover area in November 2012. Due to the advanced stage of decomposition of the body, all efforts to identify him have been fruitless...

“What he does not have right now, is a name,” said Deputy Willingham. “He is more than a case number. He has a family somewhere, maybe on the East Coast, maybe right here in Denton County. They need to know where he is. They need to have closure. If anyone sees something recognizable, or anything that reminds them of someone they knew, they should contact the Delaware State Medical Examiner. Please take the time to look at the case and share any information at all on his possible identification.”

Click to expand...

kpdx said:

Looked for Pumpkin tattoos around that time/location and found this:

http://www.wdel.com/story.php?id=45642

Haven't been able to find any updates, missing person reports, etc for him but the circumstance and general demographics fit pretty closely.

Anyone have a connection with LE in DE?

Click to expand...

Did you submit this one? Sounds like a good match, I can't find out any further information about RRJ, whether he's alive or deceased :/

I've seen a description of a set of similar tattoos on a missing man, or perhaps another UID. I'm sure of it. But can I find it? Nope. I'm still looking though.

I was going to suggest Eric Franks but I see he's on the ruleouts list:

Exclusions
The following people have been ruled out as being this decedent:
First Name Last Name Year of Birth State LKA
Dallas Basham 1961 Florida
Michael Billings 1985 Pennsylvania
Eric Franks 1972 Michigan
Paul Hodgden 1985 Colorado
Matthew Perry 1986 Pennsylvania
Frank Powell 1977 Virginia
Philip Sheridan 1943 Delaware
John Weisbecker 1987 New Jersey
John Wisniewski 1965 Delaware
Dong Hwan Yun 1973 Washington

Something else I noticed: I think he might have been quite a heavyset man. This is his clothing description:

Pants; Blue denim jeans. "Lee" relaxed fit size 38Wx30L.
shirt; "Top Heavy" t-shirt size 2XL.
Sneakers; "Nike" size 13.
Belt; black leather belt with metal buckle with two prongs.

bbm

Those are quite large for a guy measured at 5'9". Maybe he just liked his clothing loose...

Keith Allan Kirby? He was 23 in 1990, which would make him 45 when the remains were found. He's too tall but other stats match, including mention of possibly similar tattoos.

Wish the photo of Keith was a bit sharper. I'd like to see the shape of that earlobe, but that's right where it goes the blurriest. The angle his head is tipped at makes it hard to compare his eyebrows and forehead. Hairline looks similar.

kpdx said:

Looked for Pumpkin tattoos around that time/location and found this:

http://www.wdel.com/story.php?id=45642

Haven't been able to find any updates, missing person reports, etc for him but the circumstance and general demographics fit pretty closely.

Anyone have a connection with LE in DE?

Click to expand...

This guy's pumpkin tattoo is on his arm. The UID's pumpkin tattoo is on his neck.

Unless I red it wrong - the UID's pumpkin tattoo is on his upper right shoulder.

"Location: Upper right shoulder General impression of tattoo design: Polychromatic “Pumpkin”, likely by a professional artist."

Looking at the neck Tattoo Looks to me like "Ruby" "Brianna" and Michael or Michela ? jmo

Also HOLY CARP! Lynchings still happening?? IDK if this is related, but it might be worth researching?
http://www.doverpost.com/article/20121022/News/121029930

That makes me wonder whether they're positive this guy is white...

carbuff said:

That makes me wonder whether they're positive this guy is white...

Click to expand...

IDK. Let's look up missing black guys from the area and see if we get a match? I think it's worth a shot. Seems like there's shady LE in the area that maybe accidentally fudged up the paperwork? JMO

The UID had a Celtic cross tattoo, not a tattoo I've ever noticed on African Americans.

He's been identified as Ian Michael Withrow.

http://www.doverpost.com/article/20140716/NEWS/140719842/10082/NEWS

Additional article regarding this identification.

http://www.delawareonline.com/story...body-facial-reconstruction-released/12726023/

Doesn't look like Mr. Withrow was ever reported missing... No wonder he was never matched to the UID.

Note: I am basing the comment above on the fact that I cannot find any indication he was ever reported missing, not something that was stated in either of the articles.

I guess his family knew that he wasn't in a good place in life and were hoping that he'd just moved on somewhere and was still alive.
For him to have hanged himself is a tragedy. I just wish we knew more about what led to this.

I also wish there was a better way to help those in deep depression/despair. It seems that one has to do something really f'ed up and then they will get forced treatment. But actually seeking it yourself (and not doing something totally crazy) is like jumping through hoop after hoop and doing back-flip after back-flip. Especially for those without insurance, psychiatric care seems way too expensive and out-of-reach. For many suffering depression, jumping through a single hoop or even just asking for help is just too hard.