GA GA - Atlanta, WhtMale, Grey Beard, Balding, Cardiac Arrest in Wendy's, *GRAPIC PIC* 24 Sept 2018

[Gardener1850]

Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP61155
ME/C Case Number 18-1411

Physical Description
Male, White / Caucasian
Height 6' 1"(73 inches) , Measured
Weight 190 lbs, Measured

Hair Color Brown
Head Hair Description Gray and brown hair with vertex and frontal balding
Body Hair Description Overall presence of body hair
Facial Hair Description Beard and mustache
Left Eye Color Hazel
Right Eye Color Hazel
Eye Description Hazel to brown colored eyes

Accessories
Black/Brown belt
On the Body

Clothing
Brown cargo shorts
On the Body

Footwear
Navy/White sneakers
On the Body

Circumstances
Type Unidentified Deceased
Date Body Found September 24, 2018
NamUs Case Created October 28, 2019

Location Atlanta, Georgia 30312
CountyDeKalb County
GPS Coordinates (Not Mapped)--

Circumstances of Recovery
On Monday, September 24, 2018, RN Maria from Atlanta Medical Center reported the death of an unidentified white male; unknown age, unknown date of birth. The unidentified male was transported to AMC by EMS from the Wendy's (Pilot Travel Center) located at 2605 Bouldercrest Rd, Atlanta, DeKalb County, GA 30316. It was reported that the unidentified male had a witnessed cardiac arrest inside of the Wendy's. Witnesses started CPR and called 911. Per the 911 call, the unidentified male was possibly diabetic.
Details of Recovery

Condition of Remains Recognizable face

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

 

[bombardier]

only saw 2 men on NamUs from the area with the same stats;
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) , John Compton apparently went off the grid in Atlanta in 2015. Facially i CAN see a resemblance if he had gained weight/signs of age since, and this guy has frontal balding as per the UID. Also, I think in the postmortem photo there's already signs of mottling and swelling not seen in life.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) Dennis Fallin is also a bald man from GA, however he'd have to have had a rough couple of months to age from his NamUs photo to the UID photo.

 

[YaYa_521]

One exclusion-
MP32461 Noah Davis 06/20/2014 Catoosa GA

 

[YaYa_521]

only saw 2 men on NamUs from the area with the same stats;
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) , John Compton apparently went off the grid in Atlanta in 2015. Facially i CAN see a resemblance if he had gained weight/signs of age since, and this guy has frontal balding as per the UID. Also, I think in the postmortem photo there's already signs of mottling and swelling not seen in life.

It appears John has been located. His NamUs profile redirects to a permission error. His WS thread
Presumed Located - GA - John Compton, 47, Atlanta, 9 June 2015

 

[YaYa_521]

Stats don't match up that great but the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and the resemblance have me wondering if Stanley ended up in Atlanta.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

 

[bombardier]

Stats don't match up that great but the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and the resemblance have me wondering if Stanley ended up in Atlanta.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

they do look physically similar! but i really cant see why Vodden would abandon his car once it got stuck in floodwaters and instead of calling for help abscond to Atlanta and eventually pass away in a Wendy's...of course stranger things have happened before, though
i feel like a lot of older men sort of look like the UID - I work at a care home and i know of at least 3 men who look like this The fact that the UID's pretty tall at 6'1" (Vodden is 5'9") might be a feature that comes in handy...

 

[YaYa_521]

they do look physically similar! but i really cant see why Vodden would abandon his car once it got stuck in floodwaters and instead of calling for help abscond to Atlanta and eventually pass away in a Wendy's...of course stranger things have happened before, though
i feel like a lot of older men sort of look like the UID - I work at a care home and i know of at least 3 men who look like this The fact that the UID's pretty tall at 6'1" (Vodden is 5'9") might be a feature that comes in handy...

All of the points you made are valid and I agree with how common his looks are in the general population of aged men. Still, given the visual similarities and the chance either profile has errors or withheld info, I went ahead and submitted this potential match to Chief Greg Kellen @ Mendota PD. He is working on getting the information necessary for a comparison.

I was shocked when he said he will get back to me if it's a match (in most cases I don't think they disclose to private citizens) but that I would not hear from him if these aren't Mr. Vodden's remains. I mentioned to him that I hoped I wasn't wasting his time and resources by calling. He assured me I wasn't and was very grateful for the tip. Chief Kellen said investigators appreciate the work we do to help them with MP/UID cases because, as we already know, there aren't enough of them or resources to do it alone. So, keep sleuthing, sleuthers! Our efforts do matter to most LE/ME investigators.

 

[bombardier]

@YaYa_521 , did you ever hear back from the Chief about Mr. Vodden? I see that his NamUs page still has no listed comparisons. I think he looks the most similar to our guy.
This UID does have another rule-out - Ronald Davis DLC 2015. I think both of his rule-outs are some kind of automatic DNA check done in GA because both look nothing like our guy.

 

[YaYa_521]

@YaYa_521 , did you ever hear back from the Chief about Mr. Vodden? I see that his NamUs page still has no listed comparisons. I think he looks the most similar to our guy.
This UID does have another rule-out - Ronald Davis DLC 2015. I think both of his rule-outs are some kind of automatic DNA check done in GA because both look nothing like our guy.

Unfortunately I haven't heard back which likely means Mr. Vodden was excluded as a match or they're still attempting to conduct a comparison. I'm remaining hopeful though. I'd like to think once a comparison is done, they'll add Mr. Vodden to JD's exclusion list.

 

[Nancy Drew RN]

Not sure how I'm unfamiliar with this case--he was found 15 min from my home. It seems to have received basically no publicity at the time. The Wendy's he was found at is at a truck stop just off of I-285, a perimeter that encircles Atlanta. It's not far from interchanges with I-675, I-20, and I-75. The area (roughly Gresham Park) is only about 15-17% white and predominantly a younger population, so you'd think this guy would either stick out or was not from around there. I would guess he was somehow associated with the truck stop, but surely they could match it with the report of an abandoned rig, and he doesn't fit my mental image of a hitchhiker.

There are other businesses (Dollar General [an employee was shot there earlier this year after confronting shoplifters], nail salon, package store--typical low-income strip mall stuff) nearby, and some single and multi-unit housing. It would be interesting to know if someone was evicted for nonpayment or similar in the ensuing months after he was found. I did check out the nearby street names for foreclosures that have occurred since then with no luck. Vesta Bouldercrest apartments seem to be the most nearby residences that you could walk to the truck stop from.

If you look at the streetview, it's from October 2018, and there's an abandoned motel across the street, the Dekalb Inn. I'm not exactly sure when it closed, but I found an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution stating that it and the nearby Gulf America Inn had a combined 37 felony drug arrests and 322 drug and prostitution arrests in 1998. But again, this being a high-crime area twenty years before he passed away may have no bearing on the case. I was unable to find anything implying that it was used by squatters, etc, although it certainly wouldn't surprise me. There's nothing about the description of the man to indicate if he were well-kept versus struggling, although the clothing and lack of other belongings is unusual for someone more transient.

 

[Lwieckowicz]

On September 24th in 2018, an unidentified male was pronounced deceased after a cardiac event, he had no clues to his identity on his person, nobody reported somebody matching his description missing and he subsequently remained unclaimed and unidentified.

What is known is that he was a white male, had a beard/mustache, dark colored belt, and navy/white sneakers. He had hazel to brown eyes, and was wearing brown cargo shorts. He was 6’1 about 190 pounds and had brown to greying hair with vertex and frontal balding. His age is unknown. The unidentified male was transported to AMC by EMS from the Wendy's (Pilot Travel Center) located at 2605 Bouldercrest Rd, Atlanta, DeKalb County, GA 30316. It was reported that the unidentified male had cardiac arrest inside of the Wendy's. Witnesses started CPR and called 911. Per the 911 call, the unidentified male was possibly diabetic.

There is a very clear post mortem photo available in the link below to use for comparison purposes if needed.

3923UMGA

 

[bombardier]

He has a third rule-out now.
Thomas Funk Jr DLC 2011
Ronald Davis DLC 2015
Noah Davis DLC 2014

 

[Hochman]

Unidentified Cases | DeKalb County GA (#18-1411)
Rendering + Info

On September 24, 2018, an unidentified White male was transported to the Atlanta Medical Center from a Pilot Travel Center on Bouldercrest Road in Atlanta, Georgia. Bystanders witnessed the individual go into cardiac arrest inside of the Wendy’s restaurant at the Pilot location. The individual has two small pale scars on his left knee-cap. It is suspected that the individual may have had diabetes.

 

[bombardier]

Unidentified Cases | DeKalb County GA (#18-1411)
Rendering + Info
View attachment 427562
On September 24, 2018, an unidentified White male was transported to the Atlanta Medical Center from a Pilot Travel Center on Bouldercrest Road in Atlanta, Georgia. Bystanders witnessed the individual go into cardiac arrest inside of the Wendy’s restaurant at the Pilot location. The individual has two small pale scars on his left knee-cap. It is suspected that the individual may have had diabetes.

What a beautiful rendering! I love all the work of this forensic artist, I enjoy how they always draw em happy rather than stonefaced.

 

[HmmMysterious]

He's now an @othram case. Donations are greatly appreciated

Who is DeKalb County John Doe (2018)?

 

[summergirl1]

It sometimes specifies whether or not the person is thought be to be transient in circumstances like this, but in this case it doesn't. Hmm. Maybe he got there by bus, if this is on any local bus routes? If he was homeless in the area, he probably would have been recognized as hanging around the area, but there is no mention of that. Of course, it's a big area.

Yes, this case doesn't seem to have gotten any publicity. I suppose by the time they found out they couldn't identify him, there were more major things in the local news. Still, I wonder if LE ever tried to get more publicity ( or any?) out about him, even if he was a known local transient who nobody seemed to know the real name of, and who may have been from anywhere. At least genetic genealogy is going to be funded now, as that can solve pretty much any case.

 

[carbuff]

In a few other cases I've followed where somebody was rushed to the hospital, the person became separated from their possessions during the attempt to save their life. The first responders will just cut away clothing and throw everything aside in their urgency, and when the ambulance arrives, sometimes nobody takes time to grab phone, keys, wallet, etc.

It would not surprise me to find out that he left a car in the parking lot, but the connection wasn't noticed and the abandoned car was towed a day or two later. In which case he could be from anywhere.

 

[sasha17]

In a few other cases I've followed where somebody was rushed to the hospital, the person became separated from their possessions during the attempt to save their life. The first responders will just cut away clothing and throw everything aside in their urgency, and when the ambulance arrives, sometimes nobody takes time to grab phone, keys, wallet, etc.

It would not surprise me to find out that he left a car in the parking lot, but the connection wasn't noticed and the abandoned car was towed a day or two later. In which case he could be from anywhere.

I thought about that too. If he left keys, a wallet, or any personal belongings behind, it could have been set aside and then eventually tossed out by an oblivious Wendy's employee. That seems more likely to me than him being at Wendy's with absolutely nothing in his possession.

 

[carbuff]

I thought about that too. If he left keys, a wallet, or any personal belongings behind, it could have been set aside and then eventually tossed out by an oblivious Wendy's employee. That seems more likely to me than him being at Wendy's with absolutely nothing in his possession.

He might also have left everything in his car, except for cash to pay for his food.

 

[sasha17]

He might also have left everything in his car, except for cash to pay for his food.

Very true. I wonder if there was any record of abandoned cars being towed from the area in the days after his death.