Grateful Dead Fan - Media Links Only *NO DISCUSSION*

christine2448

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Post any thing you can found out about GDD in the media here.

TIA.
 
Not sure if this counts:
http://www./viewArticle.jsp?memberId=20050&grpId=-1&articleId=281474977170648

http://media-files./images/d738/d454/d744/d224/d96/f3/full.jpg
 
link no longer works to actual article, but I found this article on this forum:

http://icaremissingpersonscoldcases.yuku.com/topic/892

vancnews.com/articles/ 2005/07/07/emporia/news/news02.txt

Decade later, case still cold

Artist's sketch of "Jason Doe," an unidentified man killed in an automobile accident on Route 58 in 1995.
Man died in

car crash, no clues to name

By Teresa Welsh


Staff writer

Some cases seem destined to forever remain unsolved but the police officers who work the cases find it impossible to forget nameless victims, especially of homicide.

For every unsolved mystery there are family members and loved ones who are left wondering day-after-day, year-after-year, for the rest of their lives about what happened and why.

Officers know that solving these mysteries would be a dream-come-true and the answer to many prayers, if only they could uncover the one clue that would lead them to the identities of the bodies.

To know what it is like to never know what happened to a missing loved one is left to most people's imaginations but unfortunately there are families left to ponder those unanswered questions.

Greensville County has at least one unidentified body, the victim of a car crash and Sussex County has two, both victims of homicide.

When a body is unidentified police are left with few leads and few options.

If the person was a victim of homicide it doesn't take long for the trail to go cold when the victim can't be identified. Without an identification the police really don't have a place to begin to kick start the investigation.

Sometimes even the new forensic technology seems of little use-at least until a new lead comes in.

When a case goes cold officers have little choice but to sit back and wait for a new lead after they have sent out bulletins with pertinent information to neighboring jurisdictions, checked missing person reports from around the country, entered the person's information on the national crime information computer and posted the information on missing person websites, said Sgt. Ted E. Jones and Sussex County Sheriff Stuart Kitchen.

Jones has spent the last 10 years hoping that he could finally return "Jason Doe" to his family.

But the mystery remains. Who is the young, unidentified man killed in an automobile accident on June 26, 1995? There are only a few clues to his identity-a note found in his pocket and a sketch by a police artist of the victim and his tattoo. And of course, DNA, which can be used to positively identify him.

Even Unsolved Mysteries, a national television show, has not been able to lead authorities to the man's identity, but they are still hopeful that someone will see a rerun of the episode and will recognize "Jason Doe."

After the program aired a segment on the case in 1995 the state received calls from as far away as California, said Jones, who was the Virginia State trooper who handled the case in 1995. He is now a sergeant in the Richmond office but has not forgotten the case, which he still hopes to solve.

In the past couple of years Jones has received a couple of calls from detectives working missing person cases. At first, the calls both looked like police had found a possible match-but each time Jones was disappointed when forensic evidence proved the person was not "Jason Doe."

"One inquiry was from California. When I first talked with the detective I was hopeful but in the end there was no match," said Jones.

A lot of people have taken an interest in helping to identify the man. Information about "Jason Doe" was put on the Grateful Dead website as well as many missing and unidentified person websites across the country, he said.

A sketch of the unidentified man appears on the Missing and Exploited Children's website along with pertinent information about him and his case, said Jones.

There is also information about him on the Doe Network, a new website that lists unidentified victims from all over the country.

When Jones first started working the case he thought that having an unidentified body was unusual.

"I was shocked to find out how many children are missing and how many bodies of children and adults are unidentified," Jones stated, noting that he feels it is unusual for a person to go unidentified for so long.

"It would be a relief to finally have some closure. I would never have thought it would take this long," he said.

Jones said DNA and records will be maintained at the Richmond Medical Examiner's Office in case someone comes forward to identify the body, which Greensville County had cremated five years ago.

The unidentified passenger and Michael E, Hager, 21, of Inman, S.C., were killed when a van Hager was driving struck a tree on Route 58.

How the unidentified man got to be in Hager's automobile is as much of a mystery as his identity.

Police believe he was hitchhiking between Fairfax and Gloucester and Hager picked him up.

"Jason Doe" was about 20, five foot eight inches tall, weighed 169 pounds and had light wavy hair and brown eyes. He had perfect teeth, no facial hair and a tattoo of a five-pointed star on his left upper arm.

He was dressed in blue jeans, black tennis shoes and a white Grateful Dead T-shirt from the 1995 Summer Tour. He had a pierced left ear, and was wearing a macram necklace and a beaded necklace.

A note in his pocket read, "To Jason, Sorry we had to go. See you around. Caroline O. and Caroline T."

His only other possessions were two ticket stubs from a Grateful Dead concert the weekend before at RFK Stadium in Washington.

Police think Hager fell asleep at the wheel and caused the accident.

Jones asked for help from police agencies throughout the nation and queried a national missing persons database. He also checked reports on John Does and compared other physical characteristics that were similar to "Jason Doe."

Since then, Jones has continued to search for clues to the man's identity-but to no avail.

Kitchen knows how Jones feels because he would like to be able to tell a woman's family that her body has been found, although he would hate to tell the family the method of her death.

The woman was found bound and gagged in a trash bag, which had been thrown away in the trash.

"Unfortunately, we were the dumping ground," said Kitchen, noting that Sussex also has another unidentified murder victim, a child found about 25 years ago dumped on the highway near Stony Creek.

Sussex received a report on May 2, 2000 from an employee of Atlantic Waste landfill that had seen an opened trash bag and a human leg protruding from it.

Trash under and around the body came from the Baltimore, Md. area, said Kitchen.

Maryland police, the FBI and Washington, D.C. police were notified but Baltimore has about 350 murders a year. Detectives came to Sussex when the body was found but with so many homicides the Maryland police have not spent a lot of time on the case, said Kitchen.

"If the Baltimore police is not interested then there isn't a lot we can do," he said. "We're sure she was killed in Baltimore and dumped in the trash, which ended up here. In fact, the only charge we could file would be for dumping the body.

"We have an unsolved homicide on the books but Baltimore is the department that would have to solve it. Obviously, we do not have the manpower to be able to send detectives to Baltimore to work on the case."

Police have not been able to identify the black woman believed to have been in her 20s. No missing person reports matching the body's characteristics have been found, said Kitchen. She was about five foot seven inches tall. No guess can be made on her body weight.

A description of the body was sent to a national crime computer data base.

It is believed that the woman had been dead about three weeks before her body was found.

"Somebody, somewhere is looking for this woman," said Kitchen, "and the family needs to know where she is so they can take her remains home."

When Kitchen became a detective about 25 years ago the body of a 14-15-year-old white female was found. The child had never had any dental work done and there were other indications that the girl was probably a prostitute or lived on the street, he said.

"She was probably never even reported as missing," Kitchen stated.

Police were hoping for closure in that case when serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, a Blacksburg native who killed his own mother, confessed to the murder. Lucas was the partner of Otis Toole, who is believed to have killed Adam Walsh, son of John Walsh of America's Most Wanted.

Lucas confessed to 198 murders, then recanted his confession to many of the crimes. Police reopened the investigation of 90 of the murders but are convinced of his involvement in at least 100 homicides.

But Kitchen does not believe he killed the teen-aged girl in Sussex in the 1980s.

Lucas could not give specific details of the crime or identify the logo of the T-shirt the child was wearing. That piece of evidence was never released to the public, said Kitchen, noting that Lucas later told a Texas Ranger that he confessed so the "nice officers in Virginia wouldn't have to go home without a case."

Just found link that works, thanks to post by Patience http://vancnews.com/articles/2005/07/07/emporia/news/news02.txt
 
Police call him "Grateful Doe," but all they really know, 18 years after he was found dead at the side of the road, is locked in a secret surrounding a handful of stray clues -- four quarters, two Grateful Dead ticket stubs, a BIC lighter and a cryptic note mentioning two people named "Caroline."

That's what police found at the crash scene on the afternoon of Monday, June 26, 1995, when authorities arrived to investigate a fatal car accident in Emporia, Greensville County, Virginia.

"The vehicle went off the side of the road, braked and crashed head-on into two trees," Lt. Ted Jones of the Virginia State Police told The Huffington Post. "The occupants were not restrained and were both partially ejected through the windshield."

Both occupants, Jones said, died of massive head injuries at the scene, presumably upon impact.

"There was no presence of drugs in either of their systems," Jones said. "It's my opinion that the driver fell asleep at the wheel. That is based upon the lengthy and gradual departure of the vehicle from the paved surface."

Jones added, "They were in a Volkswagen Vanagon. It's a cab-over design with a rear-engine mount, so they had no protection up front from anything."

Read the rest here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/25/grateful-doe_n_5208512.html
 
Associated Press covered it in 1996. It was printed in several papers including the Free-Lance Star (Fredericksburg, Va) and the Washington Times (Washington, DC).

Hitchhiker Killed In '95 Crash Still Unidentified
Sunday, July 7, 1996
By Bill Baskervill, Associated Press

Emporia, VA -- A year after his death, a young man with a star tattooed on his arm, Grateful Dead concert ticket stubs in his pocket and a letter from two Carolines lies unidentified on a cold mortuary slab.

He was in his 20's -- and except for the letter -- carried no identification on June 26, 1995 when the Volkswagen van in which he was riding rammed two large loblolly pines along Route 58 three miles west of Emporia.

In the pockets of his Levi's 505 jeans were the ticket stubs, four quarters, a yellow cigarette lighter and this note: "To Jason, Sorry we had to go. See you around. Caroline O. and Caroline T."

[...]

"I would like to find out who he is and close it out," said State Police Trooper T. E. Jones who is frustrated by the leads on the man's identity.

Trooper Jones said the driver of the van, Michael Eric Hager, 21, of Inman, SC, apparently fell asleep. Mr. Hager, a student at the University of South Carolina, and his lone passenger were flung through the windshield and into the trees, Trooper Jones said. Both died of massive head injuries.

The Trooper believes the passenger had attended a Grateful Dead concert in Washington's RFK Stadium the weekend before the Monday accident.

[...]

Robert Holloway, administrator of the state Medical Examiner's Office, said it is unusual for a body to remain unidentified for as long as the hitchhiker's. The state will hold the body indefinitely, he said.

Authorities urge anyone with information about the hitchhiker to contact David Baldwin at 757-683-8366.

Fingerprints, DNA, and Dental are available.
 
'Grateful Doe' may have ties to Myrtle Beach
by Courtney Griffin
Posted: 2 hrs, 43 mins ago

[...]

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recently released a new composite of Grateful Doe, and now some people have come forward saying they may know who he is, possibly connecting him to Myrtle Beach.

[...]

"We were able to get a full facial photograph of him that our artist was able to work with. It was actually from photographs that we were able to get from the medical examiner in Virginia," he said.

Lesha Johanneck, one of the administrators of a Facebook page dedicated to finding the identity of Grateful Doe, said the composite has created new leads.

She said when the new composite came out, pictures of a man named Jason were also posted on the page.

(cont. at the link)

GRATEFUL%20DOE.jpg
 
Champaign ties may help solve 'Grateful Doe' cold case
Lindsey Gordon
Aubrey Morse
01/10/2015 06:42 PM

CHAMPAIGN -- A 20-year-old mystery could be close to being solved and it has a direct link to Champaign County.

In the last week social media outlets have been buzzing. Thousands across the nation have been trying to identify a crash victim killed in 1995 without any ID, just a Grateful Dead t-shirt and concert tickets in his pocket.

Since then he’s been known as “Grateful Doe.”

After all this time a Champaign-Urbana man believes he knows who it is. He saw a composite sketch and believes his name is “Jason” and he actually lived with him more than 20 years ago.

“To think that people had been looking for him for 20 years just really blew my mind," said MF, of Urbana.

[...]

Anyone with information or who may recognize the person in these images should call case manager, David Baldwin at 757.683.8366.
 
Myrtle Beach police investigate possible link between missing man, "Grateful Doe"
Posted: Wednesday, January 14, 2015 11:55 am | Updated: 12:34 pm, Wed Jan 14, 2015

[...]

Crosby couldn't say exactly why the missing persons report wasn't filed until recently, but noted the Callahan's mother didn't know which jurisdiction to file the report with due to the nomadic nature of Grateful Dead fans.

“She attempted to report it when he went missing but didn’t know which jurisdiction to report it to,” he said. “It’s in the infancy stages of the investigation. We’re still trying to piece everything together.”

A missing persons report on the NamUS unidentified persons database website, which falls under the U.S. Department of Justice, describes the man killed in the Emporia car crash as between 16 and 21 years old.
 
DNA positively identifies 'Grateful Doe' as man missing from Myrtle Beach
Posted: Dec 09, 2015 3:40 PM CST
Updated: Dec 09, 2015 3:40 PM CST
By WMBF News Staff

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) – A man who was killed in a car crash in 1995 in Virginia has been positively identified as Jason Callahan, a man who was reported missing from Myrtle Beach 20 years ago. New DNA samples submitted this year confirmed the identity of “Grateful Doe,” months after efforts on social media led investigators to connect the two cases.

The Virginia Medical Examiner’s office and a representative for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS) confirmed that Callahan is “Grateful Doe,” a young man who died in a car accident in June 1995, but was not identifiable due to his extensive injures.
 
‘Grateful Doe’ mystery solved; man ID’d in 20-year-old wreck
Posted 7:38 pm, December 9, 2015, by Web Staff


u8FYAKn.jpg

Jason Patrick Callahan


On a Facebook page founded in 2012 dedicated to finding the identity of “Grateful Doe,” organizers posted the good news.

“Because of everyone here this man will finally make his way home!” the post reads.

“On another note I want this story to do so much more I really pray that this story gives an important lesson to reporting your missing loved ones or even trying to check up on them if you haven’t had contact in years.”
 
'Grateful Doe' Mystery Solved Thanks To Internet Sleuths
David Lohr Senior Crime Reporter, The Huffington Post
12/11/2015 09:16 am ET | Updated 2 hours ago

"When I saw the composite drawings, I felt sick to my stomach. My heart just froze,” Grateful Doe's sister said.

What a long, strange trip it's been.

For two decades, authorities sought to identify a young man known for many years only as "Grateful Doe."

[...]

That nickname stuck with him until this week, when DNA testing positively identified him as Jason Callahan.
The man's half-sister, New Jersey resident Shannon Michelson, credits Internet sleuths and the media for making his identification possible.

"Those are the people that put this case in high gear," Michelson told The Huffington Post.

[...]

Tricia Griffith, owner of Websleuths.com, expressed her condolences to the family. She also said she is glad members of her website were able to help in the identification.

"It comes as no surprise that two true crime discussion forums were behind the identifying of Grateful Doe," Griffith told HuffPost. "Here's hoping law enforcement starts looking at our sites as a legitimate resource to help with everything they do."

Michelson is also grateful to the groups, but said the news is bittersweet. She's sad she never got to know her older brother and wishes their dad had known the truth before he died in 2009.

"I feel happy there is an answer and there is one less missing person case and one less unidentified body, but I feel bad I never got a chance to talk to him or know him," she said.

(much more at the link)
 

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