LA LA - St James Parish, WhtMale 19-28, UP851, in river, yellow hard hat, Levi jeans, sneakers, May'87

CarlK90245 · Aug 4, 2011

The Doe Network:
Case File 500UMLA http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/500umla.html
NamUs UP Case 851 https://identifyus.org/cases/851

Reconstruction of Victim by Gigi A. Waite

Unidentified White Male

The victim was discovered in May 7, 1987 in the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, Louisiana.
Estimated Date of Death: 2-5 weeks prior.

Vital Statistics

Estimated age: 19-28 years old
Approximate Height and Weight: 5'5"- 5'8"
Clothing: A yellow hard-hat, A pair of size 9 or 9-1/2 sneakers (white with blue stripes), one white athletic sock, a pair of Levi's brand blue jeans, and Fruit of the Loom brand, size 30-32, underwear.
Dentals: Tooth #1 not seen, may be antemortem loss or congenital absence. Amalgam fillings noted on #3,14,19 and 20. Unfilled caries noted on #14 and #15. Postmortem breakage noted on #6 and #7.
DNA: Available in FBI NMPDD.

Case History
The victim was found washed up along in the Mississippi River in Louisiana in May 7, 1987.

The remains were transported to LSU after an autopsy on May 9, 1987.

CarlK90245 · Aug 4, 2011

How about this one?

Another recently added photo to a previously no-photo NamUs casefile.
Jimmy Dale Whitfield
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/9296/28

* There is a very strong similarity in facial structure.
* His DLC is two months prior to discovery. The UID's postmortem interval was estimated to be about 2-5 weeks.
* His height (5'7") is spot-on to the NamUs estimate.
* His age (29) is just above the upper limit (19-28)
* He has distinctively crooked upper incisors. But the UID was missing 8&9 postmortem.
* I'm not sure what he was doing wearing a hard-hat in the Mississippi River (i.e., about 630 miles from his LKA).

ETA: I just kicked off an e-mail to Helen Bouzon.

CarlK90245 · Aug 4, 2011

CarlK90245 said:
ETA: I just kicked off an e-mail to Helen Bouzon.

Helen Replied:

There are no dental records available for Jimmy. The teeth that appear crooked in the picture are not present in the skeleton and thus cannot be compared visually. No DNA has been submitted for Jimmy either. Without any of those, we cannot complete a comparison.

I forwarded the e-mail thread to Todd Matthews to see if perhaps he can nudge the authorities in SC to obtain some identifiers on Jimmy Whitfield.

CarlK90245 · Aug 4, 2011

Todd says a DNA inquiry is currently underway, and he will make sure a manual comparison is performed when the FRS kits are processed.

zinc · Jun 6, 2012

Link to UID's LSU entry for completeness:
Louisiana Repository for Missing & Unidentified People: Case #04-23
http://identifyla.lsu.edu/profile.php?id=385

Ernie Earls (probably Earnie Earls) disappeared from Clay County, Arkansas on or around April 3, 1987:

Ernie / Earnie Earls - NamUs MP # 11230
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/11230/

[His name is spelled "Earnie" in a relative's obituary, and there are records of an Earnest Lonnie Earls in Knobel, Arkansas. On the other hand, in the Social Security Death Index there's an Ernest L. Earls of Arkansas, born 17 July 1963 not the 1965 or 1966 of the NamUs entry death recorded as 15 June 1987. Take your pick.]

Mr. Earls' height is short by 3 to 5 inches, but given that he wasn't reported missing until 6 years after his disappearance and that his recorded age may not be correct, the height/weight estimate could be from his mother's memory, from a driver's license he got as a teenager, from anywhere.

Clay County itself is about an hour's drive from the Mississippi River (http://goo.gl/maps/K3cn). On message boards, I found a few sparsely-stated claims that people in the county who know his rumored killer believe that Mr. Earls' body was dumped or hidden, possibly in/at a river. Take that with a huge grain of salt, because it's decades-old small-town innuendo.

The age and hair color are compatible. If the date of Earnie Earls' disappearance is accurate, the postmortem interval for the UID is good: one month vs. 2-5 weeks. I find other cases of bodies having been carried downstream from Memphis well into Louisiana in the same amount of time, so the distance is plausible too.

It's not entirely impossible that he could have reappeared downstream as the John Doe on the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, Louisiana. But his NamUs profile is thin, and identification would probably require that law enforcement be interested in collecting DNA from his relatives.

joeytes · Jan 28, 2013

zinc said:
Link to UID's LSU entry for completeness:
Louisiana Repository for Missing & Unidentified People: Case #04-23
http://identifyla.lsu.edu/profile.php?id=385

Ernie Earls (probably Earnie Earls) disappeared from Clay County, Arkansas on or around April 3, 1987:

Ernie / Earnie Earls - NamUs MP # 11230
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/11230/

[His name is spelled "Earnie" in a relative's obituary, and there are records of an Earnest Lonnie Earls in Knobel, Arkansas. On the other hand, in the Social Security Death Index there's an Ernest L. Earls of Arkansas, born 17 July 1963 not the 1965 or 1966 of the NamUs entry death recorded as 15 June 1987. Take your pick.]

Mr. Earls' height is short by 3 to 5 inches, but given that he wasn't reported missing until 6 years after his disappearance and that his recorded age may not be correct, the height/weight estimate could be from his mother's memory, from a driver's license he got as a teenager, from anywhere.

Clay County itself is about an hour's drive from the Mississippi River (http://goo.gl/maps/K3cn). On message boards, I found a few sparsely-stated claims that people in the county who know his rumored killer believe that Mr. Earls' body was dumped or hidden, possibly in/at a river. Take that with a huge grain of salt, because it's decades-old small-town innuendo.

The age and hair color are compatible. If the date of Earnie Earls' disappearance is accurate, the postmortem interval for the UID is good: one month vs. 2-5 weeks. I find other cases of bodies having been carried downstream from Memphis well into Louisiana in the same amount of time, so the distance is plausible too.

It's not entirely impossible that he could have reappeared downstream as the John Doe on the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, Louisiana. But his NamUs profile is thin, and identification would probably require that law enforcement be interested in collecting DNA from his relatives.

Has this ever been submitted?

DNA is available for Ernie Earls. The regional administrator is Michael Nance for both UID and Ernie Earls. It is worth sending an email to check for a match.

If not I can do it.

joeytes · Jan 31, 2013

joeytes said:
Has this ever been submitted?

DNA is available for Ernie Earls. The regional administrator is Michael Nance for both UID and Ernie Earls. It is worth sending an email to check for a match.

If not I can do it.

I submitted the match of this UID and Ernie Earls to the Doe Network.

PFF · Jan 31, 2013

Any change of trying to match skull with photographic inposition of Missing persons?

Tucarra · Jan 31, 2013

This will add nothing in terms of specifics, but I was working in Burnside, La. in 1986...and a worker at the terminal to the left of our plant had a person fall through the catwalk over the Mississippi River...piece of missing grating...

Have to think about how I'd research this...

Irish_Eyes · Feb 1, 2013

So he was wearing 2 shoes but only 1 sock? Don't know that it means anything but it just seems odd...

joeytes · Jun 5, 2013

joeytes said:
I submitted the match of this UID and Ernie Earls to the Doe Network.

Ernie Earls was ruled out. He was added to the exclusion list of NAMUS.

https://identifyus.org/cases/851

hayaletcatcher · Feb 16, 2016

Exclusions
The following people have been ruled out as being this decedent:
First Name Last Name Year of Birth State LKA
Steve Arrowood 1956 North Carolina
Ernie Earls 1965 Arkansas
Jimmy Whitfield 1957 South Carolina

Newer image-

carbuff · Feb 17, 2016

Tucarra said:
This will add nothing in terms of specifics, but I was working in Burnside, La. in 1986...and a worker at the terminal to the left of our plant had a person fall through the catwalk over the Mississippi River...piece of missing grating...

Have to think about how I'd research this...

An accident like this would explain why he's wearing a hard hat.

carbuff · Mar 6, 2018

No new ruleouts. https://identifyus.org/cases/851

He has DNA and dentals.

Related to the industrial accident possibility: somebody who fell into the river and wasn't found is likely "missing and presumed drowned," which often doesn't generate a missing persons report. He might have been working construction near the river, or on a boat, or on a bridge or other structure over the water, and could have drifted from quite far upstream. Hm.

MadMcGoo · Apr 3, 2020

NamUs UP851
The Doe Network 500UMLA

Unidentified White Male

Reconstructions of the decedent by LSU FACES and Gigi A. Waite.

Date of Discovery: May 7, 1987
Location of Discovery: St. James Parish, Louisiana
Estimated Date of Death: 2-5 weeks prior
State of Remains: Not recognizable - Decomposing/putrefaction
Inventory of Remains: One or more limbs not recovered, One or both hands not recovered
Cause of Death: Unknown
Estimated Age: 19-28 years old
Measured Height: 5'7” (67 inches)
Weight: Cannot estimate
Hair Color: Unknown
Eye Color: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown

Clothing: A yellow hard-hat, A pair of size 9 or 9-1/2 sneakers (white with blue stripes), one white athletic sock, a pair of Levi brand blue jeans and Fruit of the Loom brand, size 30-32, underwear.

Circumstances of Discovery: The decedent was found washed up along in the Mississippi River in Louisiana in May 7, 1987. The remains were transported to LSU after an autopsy on May 9, 1987.

Dentals: Available. Tooth #1 not seen, may be antemortem loss or congenital absence. Amalgam fillings noted on #3,14,19 and 20. Unfilled caries noted on #14 and #15. Postmortem breakage noted on #6 and #7.
Fingerprints: Not available.
DNA: Available.

3 Missing Person Exclusions
Ernie Earls
Jimmy Whitfield
Steve Arrowood

MadMcGoo · Apr 3, 2020

A hard hat and tennis shoes... hmmm

MadMcGoo · Apr 3, 2020

Timeframe is cutting it verrrry close...maybe too close.
4660DMFL - Thomas John Gordinier

MadMcGoo · Apr 3, 2020

I don’t know the likelihood of him making it from Arkansas to Louisiana via the Mississippi River, but he seems like a possibility.
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/11230?nav

victoriarobinson642 · Apr 3, 2020

Where he was missing from (Piggott, AK) is a little under an hour away from the Mississippi River, so it's a definite possibility.

carbuff · Apr 14, 2020

MadMcGoo said:
Timeframe is cutting it verrrry close...maybe too close.
4660DMFL - Thomas John Gordinier
View attachment 241663 View attachment 241661 View attachment 241662

Charley Project has a little more information: Thomas J. Gordinier – The Charley Project.

The circumstances make him an unlikely match, but his face is sure close to the decedent's.

LA LA - St James Parish, WhtMale 19-28, UP851, in river, yellow hard hat, Levi jeans, sneakers, May'87

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