John Doe No. 1 possibly ID'd
By PATRICIA GUTHRIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/07/06
Four sisters from Memphis may have finally given a name to John Doe No. 1 a patient who's been cared for by Grady Health System for more than three years.
Friday, after a long, emotional drive from Tennessee, they surrounded him at a nursing home looking for any sign that the man, who cannot walk or talk, is their
49-year-old brother, Tommy Lee Addison.
"Look, look at his forehead," said Martha Addison, 57, lightly touching a patch of discolored skin. "This is where he got burnt on a wooden heater. I know this is him, he's still got that mark."
The light-skinned African-American man was found injured, unconscious and without any identification July 23, 2002, at Grady High School stadium in Midtown Atlanta.
A witness said he'd tumbled 30 to 40 feet while jogging the concrete steps. After being treated for nine months at Grady Memorial Hospital for a broken hip and a traumatic brain injury, the man was placed at Crestview Health and Rehabilitation Center in southeast Atlanta, where he's lived for three years without a past or a name.
That may change early next week with DNA test results. "We're not going to release him to the family until his identification has been established," said Kim Morris of Crestview. Last year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote about the search to find relatives of Grady's three long-term unidentified patients, known as John Doe No. 1, John Doe 2 and John Doe 3. John Doe No. 2 was identified as Jose Osorio Barrillas after his plight made its way to the media in his native country of Guatamala. The third unidentified man, who suffers from dementia, is an African-American man in his 60s.
Annie Addison, 51, who was swabbed for the DNA test, said she hasn't allowed herself to think of the possibility that the test will reveal that her brother is still out there, somewhere else.
She said her brother moved to Atlanta in 1982 but he wasn't one to call or write home. They last talked to him on the phone in 1991.
As a child, he loved roller skating, then turned to karate, weightlifting and running. "He was a person all to himself," said Martha Addison, the oldest sister, who often watched after Tommy, the youngest of her four brothers.
An Internet Web site for missing adults that posts photos of Grady's two remaining John Does led the Addison family to Atlanta.
For two hours Friday, the Addison sisters peeled back memories of growing up in South Memphis. "Do you remember your girlfriend, Kathy? Remember when you got caught dating two women in the same night?"
The man who can't move, communicate or swallow, who depends on nurses for all his needs, broke out a smile, revealing a clue a gap in his front teeth.
"That's where he used to have a solid gold tooth," said Lillie Addison-Jones, who at first, didn't believe she had found her brother.
Leaning against the wall, she sobbed, "It's not him, oh, no, it's not him."
But then she reconsidered after a closer inspection of the man's face, eyes, ears, and mouth. The sisters are now talking about their next step how to bring their brother home.
"We all love him," said Dorothy Harris, 55, an Addison sister accompanied by her 27-year-old daughter. "We don't know what God has planned."
Reference: Doe Network page:
http://doenetwork.us/cases/487umga.html
Please note: This article was published January 7, 2006 and the DNA tests were supposed to take a week. There is no followup article, and the Doe Network page is still up. So was it him?
Unfortunately this article has already been deleted from the net (no link) I was able to view it in Google's cache.
