AZ AZ - Flagstaff, WhtMale UP9964, 15-18, in mortuary garage, May'01

[raine1212]

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2025dmnm.html

Michael James Gaughan

 

[nemo'smom]

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=21630210

if the body got separated from the casket and an empty casket was buried

 

[Donjeta]

I read where he had no teeth in his (the skeleton's) upper jaw. Sometimes those with a disability self-injure by biting themselves and their teeth are removed to keep them from injuring themselves.

Where did you read that, it's not true according to his Namus file
https://identifyus.org/en/cases/9964

The upper jaw dentals indicate he had all his teeth during life. N indicates a natural tooth and P a tooth that was lost post mortem. NI are impacted wisdom teeth.
NI P N P N N N P P N N N N N P NI

The lower jaw teeth were also all present during life:
NI N N P NO N N P P N N N P N N NI

 

[PHB]

Hi all,
I've never commented on an "unclaimed persons" thread before, because I'm not nearly as good of a sleuther as most of you. Something occured to me about this unclaimed skeleton, though; is it possible his remains were donated? Maybe for medical training, or something? My friend Sam from high school had 2 older siblings who went to medical school in India (his parent's native country), and I remember Sam's sister shipping skeletons back to NY to sell at a profit. Once I was at Sam's house, I think in like 10th grade, and we found an entire skeleton, skull and all, in a box. Sam said his sister was selling them to a local funeral home, they used them to train new employees.
So is it possible this young man's remains were sold or donated?
Sorry if this sounds off the wall.

 

[mamashawn]

According to NAMUS, the UID's metopic suture is persistent. That means he still had his soft spot. Explained Frontal suture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. It also says "there are bilateral inclusion bones in the lambdoidal suture." The lambdoidal suture is "a dense, fibrous connective tissue joint on the posterior aspect of the skull that connects the parietal and temporal bones with the occipital bone." Bilateral means both sides of the skull. When searching for "inclusion bones in the lambdoidal suture" I ran across Wormian bones. This site has a description and a good photo.
What also came up when searching was craniosynostosis. This is when the sutures close too fast, not leaving enough room for the brain to grow. Lambdoid Synostosis is extremely uncommon. Most often the lambdoid suture fuses on only one side of the head, causing deformity. Since there were bilateral inclusion bones I'm supposing that there would be less of a deformity, or an unusual deformity in regards to the condition.

I'm wondering if these remains were kept with the intention of passing them on for learning purposes? Or maybe given as a "gift" because they were so unusual.

I know further back in our history, people who were disabled were sometimes "put away", seen as an embarrassment to the family. I don't know if this was happening in the 60's, but that is another possibility.

 

[maureen]

This was definetely happening in the 60s. Here in VA, they had a home for the "feeble minded" and they sterilized 8300 people involuntarily until the law was declared unconstitutional in 1974! I read an article that said Adolph Hitler studied VA's policies when he came up with his idea of a Master Race. So, yes, if he was disabled, he very well may have been shunted off to the side..and no one would be looking for him.

 

[raine1212]

Nemo'mom and I are still working on this..jmo I believe griffin in not a match again jmo.
Raine

 

[raine1212]

We also have some info in the unclaimed where we have been hashing out possible missing persons. But have not found one with the skull (soft spots) not closing correctly .

 

[ctaylor]

A new article on this case, along with a composite....

http://azdailysun.com/cold-case-close-up----file-skeletal-remains/article_fe60f6dc-40e8-11e3-8ae0-0019bb2963f4.html

When the funeral director was cleaning out the attic of the old Flagstaff Mortuary on Oak Avenue in May 2001, he came across a crate.

The crate was old. Nobody at the mortuary knew how it got there. The mortuary has been used as the county medical examiner site until 1974 and could have been left over when the medical examiner’s operations moved.

There was no casket in the crate, but there was a skeleton and some clothing. The skeleton belonged to a teenaged boy.

....

 

[DrDMike]

A new article on this case, along with a composite....

http://azdailysun.com/cold-case-close-up----file-skeletal-remains/article_fe60f6dc-40e8-11e3-8ae0-0019bb2963f4.html

There is nothing remarkable about his appearance.

 

[Irish_Eyes]

I would not expect to find anything remarkable about his appearance. This is not the first UID case I've seen with an unexpected open metopic suture. And as this article says, it can be something which is not actually noticeable during life. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-metopic-suture.htm

My reading of the wording regarding the lamboid suture may be wrong...to me it seems like it might be saying that the lamboid suture is closed bilaterally, and so maybe normal. My daughter is one of the rare kids described in mamashawn's post above - she was diagnosed at 5 months with lamboid plagiocephaly/synostosis. It's really not noticeable from the front, and now that she has hair it's barely noticeable in the back of the head either. However, when her hair is wet, it's still very noticeable. I tend to think that the word synostosis would actually have been used at some point if that's what they were trying to say. That would probably be something that stood out in helping identify him because it would probably be in his medical records. Being the mom of a craniokid doesn't make me an expert though so I could be wrong.

 

[hayaletcatcher]

Detailed article from December
http://www.flagstaffbusinessnews.com/mystery-surrounds-old-bones-in-the-attic/

 

[ebonydarkness]

https://identifyus.org/en/cases/9964

Case Information
Date found May 22, 2001 00:00

Demographics
Estimated age Adolescent
Minimum age 15 years
Maximum age 18 years
Race White
Ethnicity
Sex Male
Weight (pounds) , Cannot Estimate
Height (inches) , Cannot Estimate
Body conditions
Not recognizable - Near complete or complete skeleton

Location Found
GPS coordinates
Address 1 302 W. Oak Ave.
Address 2
City Flagstaff
State Arizona
Zip code
County Coconino
Circumstances
skeletal remains found at the Flagstaff Mortuary in the garage

Physical
Hair color Brown
Head hair
4 inches in length
Left eye color Unknown or Missing
Right eye color Unknown or Missing
Skeletal findings
the metopic suture is persistent. there are bilateral inclusion bones in the lambdoidal suture.

 

[ebonydarkness]

Steven Mylan http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3362dmon.html

"Circumstances of Disappearance
Steven was last seen shortly after 12:00 leaving his residence in the vicinity of the 1200 block of Scottsburg Crescent in Mississauga, Ontario.
His vehicle was logged by American Customs on Saturday February 14, 1998, when entering the United States via the Rainbow Bridge.

His vehicle, described as a black, two door, 1991 Chevrolet Baretta, was later located on June 8, 1998 at Lookout Point at the Grand Canyon in Coconino County, Arizona. Locals in the area advised the car had been in the area since February 1998.

His parents have informed investigators this behaviour is out of character for Steven and are at a loss as to the reasons for his disappearance."

 

[CarlK90245]

If this UID was found in a mortuary garage, then he would not be listed as a missing person. He is probably presumed by his family to be buried or cremated.

 

[ebonydarkness]

Yes, I found it strange this case was on NamUs. Reminds me of the disinterred coffins from Hurricane Irene. Did a little sleuthing for MPs just in case though. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[carbuff]

On the other hand, if they're putting it on Namus, it might mean they couldn't find any clues about his ID in the funeral home's records. I suppose the person's still not likely to be listed on a missing persons site, which might make him very hard to find.

 

[amputate]

the composite somewhat favors Griffin, but then again it probably favors a lot of white teenagers.

 

[ATheLibrarian]

Our UID is part of this article on Coconino Co cold cases.

http://azdailysun.com/coconino-coun...n_9444cb8a-0e4c-56e3-8945-6fc15ee751c8.html#2

 

[luxISlight]

The mystery is so old, there are many guesses attached. In one of them, a young couple left Los Angeles to elope to Las Vegas. This story goes that Michael Griffin and Pinky Redmond were kidnapped and killed. Her body was found buried in Williams and never identified. His body was found 100 miles the other way. But DNA has proven the bones do not belong to Griffin, Czarnecki said.

http://www.flagstaffbusinessnews.com/mystery-surrounds-old-bones-in-the-attic/

So they know the bones are not Griffins? I just want to be sure I'm tracking. Also, is there a copy of the invoice somewhere?