Identified! MI - New Buffalo, Body found on beach, Mar'10 - David DelCiello

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Lurkey Lou

Lurkey Lou

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I hope I'm doing this right, I'm new here and this news story is driving me nuts. This body was found on the beach in the town next to mine, and there has been no news yet if they have identified the person. I keep thinking if it was someone who had drown they would have figured that out already, which makes me wonder if it's someone who was killed then disposed of in the big lake.

Story here: http://www.harborcountry-news.com/articles/2010/03/20/news/doc4ba13266f2298014438227.txt

here is part of the story:
NEW BUFFALO — Police were still waiting for autopsy results as of Thursday afternoon, Match 18, on a body they recovered from a beach on the 800 block of North Drive in New Buffalo just before noon on Tuesday, March 16.

Besides hoping to identify the victim, described only as a male in the New Buffalo Police Department’s initial press release, authorities also want to determine the cause of death, which was not immediately apparent, due in part to the deteriorated condition of the body.

New Buffalo Police Chief Larry Pitchford has speculated that the victim may have been dead for months before washing up on the beach.

~~~ usually if someone falls thru the ice, or drowns in the summer and no body is found they would have already figured this out.

Thoughts ?
 
spoke to a friend briefly last night who is in LE and said that appears to be no one missing who was suspected to have drown in Lake Michigan that they've been able to locate thus far. Going to try to get ahold of him and poke for more info this weekend.
 
I have a couple of calls out, I will see what I can come up with.
 
Douglas Winter went missing on Lake Superior, not Lake Michigan according to the article posted.
 
I know a few people with summer homes in that area, and they tell me there are always a few each year who drown after getting caught in currents.

I wonder if this person found might have been a winter accident? or an accident from last summer or fall. An idea of how long he has been deceased would certainly help with searching for missing persons.

Of course, I know in that area on some of the private beaches people will swim at 10pm- midnight, which always freaked me out.... and we have not had swimming weather in some time.

I wonder if someone went for a late night swim, or a swim alone and didn't notify anyone. If so a missing person could be reported, but assumed to have left of their own free will which is so often the case with missing adults, especially males.
 
Cubby said:
I know a few people with summer homes in that area, and they tell me there are always a few each year who drown after getting caught in currents.

I wonder if this person found might have been a winter accident? or an accident from last summer or fall. An idea of how long he has been deceased would certainly help with searching for missing persons.
Click to expand...

Right, supposedly chief sent out information to other depts on the lake who may have had missing suspected drowning victims to no avail, so far anyway. I googled trying to see if I could come up with any still missing , suspected drown and came up dry, but I am not the worlds best googler.

my friend just returned from vacation, so he wasn't entirely up to speed yet, I will be bugging him this weekend for sure though.
 
mtrooper said:
There are quite a few people that are missing from Lake Michigan, bridge jumpers, kayakers, swimmers, boaters.

Here is a kayaker that went missing in October.

Douglas R Winter
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/65905232.html
Click to expand...

I'm not finding that info. And that guy was Lake Superior. I know our area drownings were all accounted for, but when I googled Lake Michigan missing I couldn't come up with anything.
 
thank you mtrooper ! I just send those links over to my friend at the PD.
 
mtrooper said:
I appologize, I had a bunch of links up at once and I copied and pasted the wrong name. Here is the link about the two kayakers, and the following link is the one about the one missing from Lake Michigan. Sorry about the mix up.

http://gitcheegumeeguy.blogspot.com/2009/10/missing-kayakers.html

http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news...uthorities_identify_kayaker_200909211212_rev1
Click to expand...


Gitcheegumeeguy went missing in Door County, Wisconsin which is the Green Bay area.
the second link indicates he was found and ID'd.

Door County/Green Bay Wisconsin is a long way from Berrion County/SE Michigan... and a body would have to travel pretty far in and across lake michigan to make it all the way from Green Bay to SW Michigan.

I have talked to LE a little about bodies falling into the lake in the downtown Chicago area, and know the lake flows south.

I think, with this John Does case, we need to first know an estimated date of death, and a little more about the lake flow patterns in the immediate area.

hth
 
Cubby said:
Gitcheegumeeguy went missing in Door County, Wisconsin.... the second link indicates he was found and ID'd.

Door County Wisconsin is a long way from Berrion County Michigan... and a body would have to travel pretty far.

I have talked to LE a little about bodies falling into the lake in the downtown Chicago area, and know the lake flows south.

I think, with this John Does case, we need to first know an estimated date of death, and a little more about the lake flow patterns in the immediate area.

hth
Click to expand...

BBM

Cubby, that's what I thought too because it said ID'd. But, in the article it said his body was not found.

Snipped:

The Coast Guard found Kariger’s kayak on Sunday morning. At this time his body has yet to be recovered and the Coast Guard has suspended its search.
 
we have had them " land " in our area from Chicago and Gary actually, so the flowing south theory isn't always exactly on target.

I hope to find out more info this weekend, after my friend at the PD gets back to work and up to speed.
 
Thanks Softball mom... I didn't see his body hadn't been recovered.

Lookylou, I am in the chi town area too, and have been to your area since my childhood. New Buffalo as a kid camping with the YWCA...

The likely hood of a body making it from Green Bay to the SE corner of Lake Michigan is a stretch. Not impossible but something like 1 in a half million or so odds. My step dad is retired LE from the area... and a country guy, and a boater... so I ask him....

I can see bodies falling into the lake in Chicago making it to Gary... but falling into the lake near green bay is way too far.

Can you ask your friend to contact the ME to determine an approximate date of death for this doe? Was he in the lake weeks, months? That would be the best help for this doe.

There are a few other cold case bodies which have fallen into the lake and are still unsolved in your immediate area... I'd have to look, but they are there... sadly, but they are.
 
By flowing south, I meant bodies which fell into the lake along the north shore in chicago.. so if they fell in say near Evanston, they would flow south and be found south.

A body that falls into the lake in Chicago, will likely be found further south if they are not immediately found.

We just had a case here at WS. Richard "Rick" Wieting, a missing postal worker fell into the lake at Foster Avenue beach,( 5000 N?) and was found apx 2 months later about 1.5 miles south of where his car was found (4000 N.) at Montrose Beach... he had been in the lake since mid Jan to early March.

I know it is different with the rocks here in Chi town... and the beaches in SE MI are different... so just thinking....
 
Cubby said:
Thanks Softball mom... I didn't see his body hadn't been recovered.

Lookylou, I am in the chi town area too, and have been to your area since my childhood. New Buffalo as a kid camping with the YWCA...

The likely hood of a body making it from Green Bay to the SE corner of Lake Michigan is a stretch. Not impossible but something like 1 in a half million or so odds. My step dad is retired LE from the area... and a country guy, and a boater... so I ask him....

I can see bodies falling into the lake in Chicago making it to Gary... but falling into the lake near green bay is way too far.

Can you ask your friend to contact the ME to determine an approximate date of death for this doe? Was he in the lake weeks, months? That would be the best help for this doe.

There are a few other cold case bodies which have fallen into the lake and are still unsolved in your immediate area... I'd have to look, but they are there... sadly, but they are.
Click to expand...


Oddly enough the current sweeps up the coast on our side. I'm not sure if I can explain this good enough, for instance alot of times over the years when they go in at Warren Dunes ( I'm assuming you know these landmarks, since you've been around here ) .....they wind up at Bridgman beach or further north by the cook plant. Rarely do they go in at Warren Dunes and travel south when their discovered.

I can't find these cold cases from our area ! Personally as an avid swimmer in Lake Michigan I usually track the drownings and make sure they are found before I STEP foot back in the lake. Worst fear since I was a child was running into one on my own. I'm just having no luck finding these cold cases your talking about, and the local PD doesn't seem to have them on record either. I suck at google. I'm going to keep trying though. I asked my friend from the PD if he could tell me what clothing he had on, hoping to hear back tomorrow. I ran across an article today about an alleged jumper in Grand Haven I think it was, but video camera's around the area didn't match up with the 911 call that was phoned in. Going to see if I can find that article again, I think that happened on 3/11, but I wasn't sure if the River was close enough to Lake Michigan for it to even make sense.
 
Cubby said:
By flowing south, I meant bodies which fell into the lake along the north shore in chicago.. so if they fell in say near Evanston, they would flow south and be found south.

A body that falls into the lake in Chicago, will likely be found further south if they are not immediately found.

We just had a case here at WS. Richard "Rick" Wieting, a missing postal worker fell into the lake at Foster Avenue beach,( 5000 N?) and was found apx 2 months later about 1.5 miles south of where his car was found (4000 N.) at Montrose Beach... he had been in the lake since mid Jan to early March.

I know it is different with the rocks here in Chi town... and the beaches in SE MI are different... so just thinking....
Click to expand...

Cross posted with you ! I understood what you are saying for sure. And definitely the kayaker would be a million to 1 shot I'm sure.

Did you say your dad was retired LE from my area ? or Chicago ?
 
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