Identified! CA - San Diego Co., WhtMale in rural area, Aug'95 - Frank Bresson

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The Doe Network:
Case File 271UMCA
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/271umca.html
NamUs UP Case 2761 https://identifyus.org/cases/2761

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Note: Photos of tattoos are shown at links above.

Unidentified White Male

* The victim was discovered on August 15, 1995 in San Diego County, California
* Estimated Date of Death: A few days

Vital Statistics

* Estimated age: 20-25 years old
* Approximate Height and Weight: 5'9"; 182 lbs.
* Distinguishing Characteristics: Short brown hair; blue eyes. Short, 1/2 inch, linear scar on the anterior aspect of the left shoulder, with two areas of scarring on each side, suggestive of sutured wound (possibly an old gunshot wound scar).
* Tattoos: Deco/tribal (a Fleur de lis) tattoo on the right upper arm, going circumferentially around it, which appears to be a wavy line and a scroll, with a symbol similar to the spade emblem on a deck of cards. Tattoo on left arm is a crude-looking line drawing resembling a sunset and clouds with seagulls.
* Dentals: Available.
* Clothing: 1 black T-shirt with "Marithe Francois Girbaud: A higher state of evolution" printed on the front and "Are you envolved over a ringed planet?" with four stars printed on the back; 1 multicolored camouflage pants. Black combat type boots. Located with him was a soiled white sheet and 1 broken plastic pan sheath.
* Fingerprints: Available
* DNA: Available at State lab.

Case History
The victim was located shot to death in a rural area north of Fallbrook; 0.4 miles West of Intersection Sandia Creek Drive & Rock Mountain Drive. The victim's head was partially bound with duct tape.
Investigators searched missing persons databases, ran his fingerprints, and contacted military bases ---- but none offered any clues in the case.
Detectives at the time checked with tattoo parlors in Fallbrook and Escondido to see if anyone recognized either tattoo, but no one did.
 
This guy bears a strong resemblance to Steven Michael Clark Jr.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/c/clark_steven.html
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There is no mention of a tattoo on his arm or the scars described on the UID, but the Distinguishing Characteristics info in Charley Project is very brief, and they could have neglected to mention it. His friend Burt Dollar (http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/d/dollar_burt.html) had tattoos, which were described.

He is the right height, and he has blue eyes to match the UID. His hair is short enough in some of his four photos, but the drawing of the UID depicts him with his hair parted on the left, whereas the B&W photo of SMC shows him with his hair parted on his right. People don't usually alternate the side at which they part their hair.

The combat boots and camouflage pants on the UID suggest a similar personality type to what the bandanna and the backwards baseball cap suggest for SMC.

The circumstances don't fit real well. There is a one-month lag between DLC's for Clark and Dollar and this UID's death, so it is difficult to concoct a scenario to fit these circumstances. He disappeared from Long Beach CA with his friend, Burt Dollar, and the car was found about 300 miles North near Yosemite Natl. Park. San Diego is the opposite direction. Perhaps it is possible that they drove South to San Diego, where one or both of them were murdered, and the perp drove their car to Yosemite. There is no mention of when the car was found, and one would still have to explain what they were doing for a month before this UID was murdered.
 
Dunno. The resemblance is very close. In the middle photo of the five in your post, it looks like the hair might be parted on the opposite side.

I'm not sure either the ears or the teeth look right. The reconstruction sketch seems to show a slight gap, which doesn't match Clark's, and Clark seems to have more protuding ears. The sketch shows small ears tight to the skull.
 
You're probably right. SMC's cheekbones are slightly broader also.

That tattoo is pretty prominent to neglect to mention, and you have to concoct a pretty imaginative story to explain the circumstances.
 
You're probably right. SMC's cheekbones are slightly broader also.

That tattoo is pretty prominent to neglect to mention, and you have to concoct a pretty imaginative story to explain the circumstances.

The mouth is so spot on that it makes one want to ignore the differences.
 
When was the car found? I can only get "later."

Burt Dollar's missing persons page at NCMA suggests he was traveling with an "unknown white male individual" and makes no mention of SMC.

Looking at the Long Beach Police Department case numbers it seems that Stephen (049500699) wasn't reported missing until 2004 whereas Burt was reported right away (95-69582). Therefore it's not surprising if his profile is less detailed than Dollar's - it seems that it may have been an acquaintance who reported Stephen missing.

I wonder whether these two were really just buddies going camping in their Festiva or, given that they weren't reported missing together, they had a more businesslike or acquaintance-type relationship. If that is the case, that seems to open up some new possibilities for scenarios that could make the dates fit.
 
I guess that anything related to San Diego piques my interest.

Hmmm, if you google Burt Dollar, you will find a myspace page devoted to both of them, created by a friend of theirs.

http://www.myspace.com/stephenmichaelclarkjr

Anyway, this website suggests that these two guys were high school friends, attending Banning and Beaumont high schools. I'm guessing class of 1991 (Steve) and '92 or '93 (Burt) based on their birthdates. He lists an address in Banning where both Steve and Burt lived together in 1991-93, and then says that they moved together to Indiana in 1995. I'm not sure why they would have lived together esp if they were still in high school, but whatever.

Anyway, another interesting thing is that in the photo gallery, there is a pic of Burt wearing a New Orleans Saints tee shirt. Their symbol?? a fleur de lis. hmmmm... However, according to other sites, Burt seems to have other tattoos not mentioned in the description of the UID. (the dog and the dollar sign)
 
In the MySpace page, there is a photo of a shirtless Steve dated July 94 with no tattoo on his arm.

If the UID is Steve, he would have had to have been tattooed between July 94 and Aug 95.

I'm not sure why they would have lived together esp if they were still in high school, but whatever.

FWIW, it does say in the MySpace page that Steve's orientation was straight.
 
In the MySpace page, there is a photo of a shirtless Steve dated July 94 with no tattoo on his arm.

If the UID is Steve, he would have had to have been tattooed between July 94 and Aug 95.



FWIW, it does say in the MySpace page that Steve's orientation was straight.
I read your other post about the hair part. Just an opinion here but I rarely include hair as an identifier. Color is a subjective element in identification. How many times have we seen brown hair described as blond or strawberry blond described as red? How does the ME determine how one styled their hair anyway?

Take into account the circumstances. This young man had his head partially bound in duct tape. I am surprised to see there was enough hair to determine a part.

As to the tattoo, considering the hard edge detail and depth of color, I would estimate it was fairly recent prior to death. The one on the left arm much older or perhaps totally unprofessional which would render fast-fading ink.

I think you already know to submit it. What cha waitin' for? :poke:
The teeth alone will be a quick decision maker. Fingers crossed here.
 
In the MySpace page, there is a photo of a shirtless Steve dated July 94 with no tattoo on his arm.

If the UID is Steve, he would have had to have been tattooed between July 94 and Aug 95.

FWIW, it does say in the MySpace page that Steve's orientation was straight.

I saw that too. I didn't mean to imply otherwise. It does seem unusual that two 16-17 year old friends would be living together, though. I wonder if they had some sort of family tie (cousins, step-brothers) or if one or both of the families were out of the picture. It is also somewhat unusual to me that the missing persons site was created by a friend, rather than a parent or sibling.

Anyway, I wish that someone could figure out the mystery of Burt and Steve, whether or not this particular UID fits. However, if their car was found "off 395 somewhere near the CA/NV border..." well, that's a huge, desolate area (Mojave desert, Death Valley, etc)! Incidentally, the myspace poster writes in his last blog post that he feels like some other people known to him may know more about what happened to Steve and Burt than they are willing to say. I wonder if their was some sort of drug activity, other illegal activity, etc, that led to the death of Steve and Burt, and that makes these people not want to talk.

BTW, I bet that the myspace poster would know if Steve had a fleur de lis tattoo by 1995. Anyone care to reach out (or invite him here)? I'm new here, so I don't know the protocol.
 
I wonder whether he chose the fleur de lys for symbolic meaning and got the tattoo artist to make it a bit tribal looking because that was fashionable for young men, or whether he was just looking at a page of possible tattoo designs and said "Yeah something like that as an armband"

If it was for symbolic meaning, it is possible he has Bosnian connections. In the 1990s Bosnia used the symbol on their flag and it has a quite strong Bosnian Muslim nationalist/militarist/ethnic pride meaning.
 
I called up Ron, the administrator of the MySpace page, who lives in Indiana. I spoke to him for about 15 minutes. Here's a summary of what he said:

When Steve left Indiana in May of 1995, he didn't have any tattoos as far as Ron knew. I mentioned that the tattoo was of a Fleur de Lis (like the New Orleans Saints insignia), although it may not have been related to the football team per-se. He responded that Burt liked the Saints, but Steve's favorite football team was the New York Giants.

I also asked him whether Steve was one to wear camouflage pants or combat boots. He said that Burt was more likely to wear something like that.

Ron said that a while ago, some friends of Steve and Burt who had seen them just prior to their disappearance, got Ron's number from the MySpace page and called him up. Ron told me that he thought these people knew more than what they were admitting to.

One of the guys told Ron that they knew that Steve and Burt were depressed prior to their disappearance. But when S&B asked them if they could borrow a couple of guns so that they could go target shooting while they were on their trip, these people went ahead and loaned them the guns (even though they were aware of S&B's depresssion issues).

I asked if S&B were into guns and target shooting, and Ron said that they were not.

Ron gave me the telephone number of the Long Beach detective who is in charge of S&B's cases. He says that this detective is very interested in the case and very happy to work with anyone.

While talking on the phone, I e-mailed Ron a link to the NamUs casefile on this UID. He took a look at it and expressed doubt that it was Steve.
 
I just sent Ron a link to this thread, and invited him to join and contribute if he wished.
 
I just sent Ron a link to this thread, and invited him to join and contribute if he wished.

He replied as follows:

I just remembered that Steve had a motorcycle accident in 1993 and it was bad enough to have pins put in his right leg. He would have scars from that and pins would show up in an ex-ray if they did one.These scars would of showed up most likely on a autopsy if one was done. I had given the Detective over the case this information also. Steve wasn't officially reported missing till much later because he had no official relation to make the report. San Bernardino County did not want to pursue a missing persons investigation since he was an adult. The laws have changed since then for adults. Both Steve and Burt were in the foster care system till they were 18 from a very young age in Los Angeles County.

Very interesting info, not just insofar as it rules this possible connection out, but also as a case in point of how crucial information is left out of a Charley Project or Doe Network MP information page. (Steven M. Clark does not have a NamUs page).
 
He replied as follows:



Very interesting info, not just insofar as it rules this possible connection out, but also as a case in point of how crucial information is left out of a Charley Project or Doe Network MP information page. (Steven M. Clark does not have a NamUs page).


Yep! Perhaps he could have been identified already with this info if it had only been made public!
 
That also seems to explain why they were living together -- it sounds like they were the only family they had. Like brothers even if they weren't related by blood.
 
when I first read about the fleur de lis I thought of Quebec. however, no one has discussed the shirt.

This is from Wikipedia on the French designer Marithe Francois Girbaud. they did not have a major US presence outside of a few major cities, including New Orleans:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marithé_François_Girbaud

I wonder if LE contacted the designer to see when and where the T-shirt was sold. If you google "Marithe Francois Girbaud" and "higher state of evolution" the ONLY matches pertain to this UID.
 
I found these photos of Frank Bresson. I'll post them here to show the comparison with the facial reconstruction.

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http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/oct/23/bresson-killer-homicide-fallbrook-santa-margarita/

A Riverside man was shot and left along a Fallbrook river 19 years ago, and sheriff’s homicide investigators have been looking for his killer ever since. Investigators released details of the cold case Thursday in hopes of sparking some tips or leads...

The case started with the Aug. 13, 1995 discovery of a man’s body near the Santa Margarita River in the Fallbrook area... About the same time, the family of 22-year-old Frank Aaron Bresson reported him missing. They had found his car abandoned in a Riverside parking lot...

After the match was made and his family notified, his mother told ABC 7 in Los Angeles in an interview that he had been deeply involved in drugs and didn’t know how to get out of it.
 

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