LA LA - Daniel Dewey, 17, Greensburg, 17 Nov 1979

PonderingThings

Former member
Joined
Dec 17, 2005
Messages
1,752
Reaction score
210
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/8umla.html


8UMLA.jpg

John Doe

Unidentified White Male

* Found in Saint Helena Parish, near Greensburg, Louisiana on November 17, 1979.
* Cause of death was strangulation.
* Estimated Date of Death: Up to 5 days prior to discovery.

Vital Statistics

* Estimated age: 15 - 19 years old
* Approximate Height and Weight: 5'5"; 125 lbs.
* Distinguishing Characteristics: Shoulder-length, blonde hair and blue, green or grey eyes.
* Marks, Scars, Tattoos: The victim had an "x" or "+" tattooed on his left hand between his thumb and index finger. A vertical surgical scar was present at the top of his navel, which measured three inches in length. The victim also had a prominent scar on his right hand beginning at the knuckle of his middle finger and ending at the knuckle of his pinkie finger which measured 2.5 inches. His left ear lobe was pierced.
* Dentals: Available
* Clothing: He wore shoes that were too big and on the wrong feet, oversized pants, a black T-shirt with the words Sex is better than weed if you have the right pusher on the back and a demon on the front with the slogan Sworn to fun, loyal to none.
* Fingerprints: Available. The NCIC fingerprint class is POPIPMPMPOPIPMPIPIPI
* Other: Police think his name or nickname was Jimmy.

Case History
The victim was found by deer hunters in St. Helena Parish woods on November 17, 1979. The victim was discovered bound and strangled. He was hog-tied with his hands and feet behind his back. A rope ran from his hands and feet to his neck; when the victim struggled, the rope constricted and caused his death.
Investigators showed a picture of the body around the French Quarter of New Orleans, where some people said he looked familiar but nobody could provide a positive identification.
Two other bodies, one found near Abita Springs, another near Gulfport, Mississippi, may be linked to the case. Both were found in 1978 in remote woods. One victim was tied identically the way this victim was tied; the other, similarly.
The Abita Springs victim was identified as Dennis Turcotte, 22; the Gulfport victim was Raymond Mark Richardson, 17. The similarities in the three cases would indicate that a serial killer was at work in the region in the late 1970s. The victims all were found in desolate areas bound in similar fashion, all were in their teens, slightly built, and all had similar facial features and hair styles. At one time, all three were thought to have lived in the New Orleans area and had ties to the French Quarter or hung out there. They may have been "street kids," possibly male prostitutes. Turcotte and Richardson worked at the same restaurant in the French Quarter, Jimmy's Coney Island Hot Dog Stand on Royal Street.
 
http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/37dmor.html

ENye.jpg
8UMLA.jpg
ENye1.jpg

Edward age 14, John Doe Center, Edward age progressed to 41 on right

Edward Chester Nye
Missing since June 22, 1978 from Prospect, Jackson County, Oregon
Classification: Lost, Injured, Missing

# Vital Statistics Date Of Birth: July 12, 1963
# Age at Time of Disappearance: 14 years old
# Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'3; 120 pounds
# Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Brown hair; blue eyes.
# Clothing: Brown jeans; a yellow shirt; and tennis shoes.

Circumstances of Disappearance
Nye was last seen camping with a church group in Oregon when he ventured off alone to go fishing.

Possible Match?:
1. I hesitated to post this possible match because I really don't think its him. There is something about the nose, and the chin as being off.... BUT, if you look at the face shape, in the age progressed photo, it fits more...nose is still wrong though....!
2. All the stats match, or are within a close margin of error.
3. Edward vanished in June 1978, John Doe died a little over a year later, Nove 1979.
4. Edward disappeared from a church camping trip. Did he use the opportunity to run away? Was he abducted and someone turned him out?

...as I said at the beginning.... I don't think its him, even though its close.
 
As far as the Louisiana killings there is another serial operating out of the Houma area. We have a lost thread about it. This state has had a preponderance of serial killings over the last 30 years. A few have been caught and many are still operating. I believe most serials move around or at least change their geographic killings to a point that the area that they live in is not an area of interest particularly in less densely populated areas.

The fact that this case you mentioned is a young, possibly drug involved individual that leads me back to Houma. Almost all of the victims were substance abusers and young but most were black and some were found without shoes...like ritual for instance. The last time I checked the count was 18 or 19 victims. Still this has never made national news. It is the throwaway system I have mentioned before. Not pretty individuals with good paying jobs and a huge network of loved ones. So sad.
 
ConcernedPerson I'm actually very familiar with the Houma case as I did quite a bit of research on it a little while back.

The problem is the killings in Houma haven't stopped! They've been going on for a long time and the last victim was only what... six months ago?

Part of the problem is that local law enforcement seem to want to dump every man, who has been to a bar into this victim list - and its only later that they are extracted. I don't know if its funding, good detective work, or tunnel vision - but it has happened.

The description of how this teen died is horrific. Its reminicent of some other cases that I know of (in California) where women were the victims... in this case its young men.

Makes me wonder why someone who would go so far as to repeatedly do this would stop.....

I noticed the thing about the shoes being on the wrong feet. Did he do this? Were his shoes removed and then put on the wrong feet by the killer to send some kind of message?
 
PT, I am so glad to hear that you researched the killings. I thought I was the only one. The last killing was in November of 2005. So, yes, they are occurring. It also tells me it is time for another one. The killer has escalated since the first one.

The shoe/foot thing is certainly something to look into. LE has big problems with jurisdiction in that state and communication. We can see this from the Katrina situation. We will be a lonely few reporting about anything there but if one person is helped than it is worth it. I like being on a team with you.
 
I am so glad this young man has his name back. Wonderful news!
 
Wow Believe! What a great story!

I'm glad that people take an interest in a case and won't let it go. I think most of us on here have a 'pet case' and try to think of every angle to help bring some answers to the families.
 
Finally ------

La. trooper IDs body unclaimed since his boyhood
Thursday, August 07, 2008

By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer


NEW ORLEANS — From the time he was 9, Dennis Stewart was haunted by a boy eight years his elder.

For Stewart, now a state trooper, Danny Dewey's funeral last month laid to rest the ghost of a slight young man who was murdered and dumped near Stewart's boyhood home nearly three decades before.

What led up to the quiet service also answered a simple question that had captivated Stewart since he heard about the body found not far from where he was growing up: Who was he?

The killing was the talk of rural Greensburg, La., about 100 miles north of New Orleans, where the population has hovered around 600 for years.

"Murder is something that doesn't happen in Greensburg," Stewart said. "And here was a really horrible murder dumped on our doorstep."

Police investigated, but the case went cold. No one knew who he was. No one claimed the body.

The years passed and the case was largely forgotten by all but Stewart. As a youngster, horrified by the killing, he couldn't get over how someone not much older than he could be killed and yet no one would miss him, or claim him.

In fact, it was easy for Danny to be lost.

"Our mother died in a car accident when I was seven and Danny was six," Billy Dewey, one of the victim's three brothers, said Wednesday. "We were all just sort of farmed out after that, going from relative to relative. Our upbringing was pretty rough."

Dewey, 47, remembers the last time he saw Danny _ the day Billy graduated from high school in May, 1979.

"Danny was a junior in high school," Dewey said. "But the people we lived with moved the next day, Danny and I were both homeless then. The last time I saw Danny he was getting on a bus."

In 1995, Stewart became a State Police detective and renewed his interest in the unidentified body, putting hours into solving the case, or at least determining the teenager's identity.

"He did most of the work on his own time," said Lt. Doug Cain II, a State Police spokesman. "Even after he transferred to the academy, he kept at it. It was kind of like a puzzle he couldn't stop worrying with."

The victim, found Nov. 12, 1979, was slightly built with long blond hair and blue or gray eyes. He wore shoes that were too big and on the wrong feet, oversized pants, a black T-shirt with the phrase "Sex is better than weed if you have the right pusher" on the back.

Police said there was no sign of sexual assault.

He had been dead less than a day and was trussed up in a series of knots that Stewart said were deadly by design.

"It appears that the manner in which he was tied, the ropes around his neck connected to the ropes binding his hands and feet, were designed to kill him," Stewart said. "As he struggled, it basically constricted on him and caused his death."

Fingerprints were taken, but in the 1970s, identification by computer cross-referencing was a still-new science and fingerprint databases were far from complete.

"I assume they sent the fingerprints out, but they were never connected to anyone," Stewart said.

Locals took up a collection to have the body buried in Pine Hill Cemetery. The tombstone read, "Unidentified Homicide Victim."

Two more bodies _ young men bound in a similar, intricate style, had already turned up in Mississippi and Louisiana, but no one was arrested.

"I'm sure it was the same person," Stewart said. "But after those three it ended. Either the killer died or went to prison."

As Stewart began his investigation, he found much of the physical evidence was missing. Early investigators had not taken dental impressions, and DNA identification was not in use in 1979.

On July 31, 2000, the remains of the nameless victim were exhumed. By then, forensic investigation and computer search capabilities had blossomed, and Stewart was hopeful of getting a lead.

"I kind of thought from the beginning that the chances of me finding the party responsible was going to be limited," Stewart said. "But I thought maybe I can identify him."

DNA testing provided no revelations, but in June, acting on a colleague's suggestion, Stewart submitted the body's fingerprints through the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, a more efficient system for matching prints than was available in 1979.

The search produced a match from an arrest in Baytown, Texas, in 1979. Daniel Wayne Dewey had been arrested for a misdemeanor _ riding a motorcycle without a helmet or an operator's license.

In early June, Stewart found Billy Dewey living near Baytown, outside Houston, and phoned him.

"It was a relief at first," Dewey said. "Then I found out how he died and it became both relief and sadness. I can't get the way he was tied up out of my mind. The lonely way he died."

Over the years, Stewart's relationship with the dead boy had deepened.

"I felt like I had gotten to know him during the time I was trying to identify him," Stewart said. "It was moving to see him finally returned to them. It was like sending him home."

The family claimed the body and held a memorial service June 23. The remains of Daniel Dewey, 17, were cremated and taken by his closest brother, Norman, to his home in Ponca City, Okla.
 
What a sad story. At least the family knows what happened to him now.
 
Job well done Trooper Stewart !! Thank you for your dedication to this young boy. You finally brought him home to those who love him. Rest in peace Danny.
 
That's awesome. I wish more LE would do this. They have way more access to evidence than the average person.
 
Excellent story believe! Hopefully with the newer databases some of these old cases will finally be solved as more and more fingerprints and dna are entered into the system. thanks for sharing!
 
In the young victim's case, committing a misdemeanor enabled his prints to be identified. How many victims that had no police record remain unidentified as a result of their law abiding lifestyle? How ironic.
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
71
Guests online
2,744
Total visitors
2,815

Forum statistics

Threads
590,011
Messages
17,928,948
Members
228,038
Latest member
shmoozie
Back
Top