LA LA - Belle Chasse, WhtMale 16-17, UP88342, hanged, suicide note, Feb'75 #2

[Ciriii57]

The only way this gets solved is if LE open a new MP case and take it to a judge and grovel to get as many names on the list to test against the remains as possible, while not forgetting that there is no crime, not then, not now, so this is the lowest pole on the totem pole.

I totally agree here. I hate to be the voice of disillionment/reality but quite honestly there is barely any chance that BCJD is going to be exhumed. Regarding his death; there has been no crime so there is absolutely no reason for them to do so.
Regarding the missing person's case - this is not Plaquemines Parish's missing person's case, they don't have a missing person who matches him or it would have been sorted already. Therefore they aren't going to exhume him to clear him off their books since he isn't on them.

There is also another problem specific to remains in NOLa and that is the high water table. Please correct me if I am wrong but I believe most graves in this area are above ground because those below ground are destroyed by water. I hate to say it but there is probably nothing left of BCJD to actually exhume if he was buried under the ground. Any DNA has probably been destroyed by Louisiana's soil.

Why Are People Buried Above Ground in New Orleans? - Nola Tour Guy

The geography of New Orleans is a driving factor in why above-ground burial and cemeteries exist. Also Cultural traditions play a large factor.

www.nolatourguy.com

 

[Sjöberg]

Yeah I really don't think this was a sexuality issue either.

BCJD, as he says, acted very methodically in his words. And his words are "bomb," "defuse," "violence," "shatter," which to me suggest issues in dealing with anger, not sexuality.

He said he was "born with a definite pervasive melancholy," where I would've expected to see something like "born with feelings I couldn't understand or accept," if this was about sexuality.

The description also bores a resemblance to what one suffering from schizophrenia, schizoaffective or bipolar disorder could say. Don't get me wrong, by far most people with schizophrenia are not dangerous to others. However, it is a scary illness to have and and these conditions usually involve both depressive symptoms and also some sort of paranoid thoughts or delusions. And back in the day were very often dealt with... well, not in the way we do nowadays.

Anyone with blue eyes is not possible to be BCJD

Yes, I would rule out anyone with blue, grey or green eyes. Brown or maybe hazel.

What the sketch seems to suggest IMO:
* brown or dark brown hair
* long and narrower face
* long and narrower nose
* thick, full lips - both upper and lower (this is not a common look where I live)
* curved eyebrows (as opposed to straight)
* eyes, that I have a hard time describing, but you know the people that get dark circles under the eyes and have "eyeball" shape visible under the skin? Does not have to be protruding eyes per say, but not like indigenous people in the north or asians have. A common shape, but I don't have a word for it.
* probable cleft chin
* no facial hair
* hair probably parted on his right side

As for CW - I cannot rule him out, but I also don't really rule him in. The facial similarities are limited and his hair looks dark blonde to maybe light brown. His hair is also parted on the left not right. His ears are very prominent. His eyebrows seem to be quite straight. His upper lip is not very full (though also not super narrow).

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

Was it confirmed that the sheet came from the Red Roof Inn? Was this laundry mark from the laundry they used? I'm very sorry if this has been discussed, I don't remember everything lol

Since this was 1975, I wouldn’t be surprised if the sheet came from someone’s clothesline.

 

[Rolypolyoly]

I wonder if he had been carrying that jar with his note around for a while?. If he had suicidal thoughts and it was a case of when and not if, maybe he had an idea that it was coming but just not when if that makes sense?.
So it wasn't totally planned, but also not impulsive, but maybe kind of inevitable?.

 

[Sweetluv]

So I started thinking back to the LYLE STEVIK unidentified male suicide case. The DNA Doe Project took the case on and solved it through Genealogy. I just sent them a detailed email suggesting this case and the need for him to be exhumed for DNA analysis. Worth a try!

 

[Romulus]

So I started thinking back to the LYLE STEVIK unidentified male suicide case. The DNA Doe Project took the case on and solved it through Genealogy. I just sent them a detailed email suggesting this case and the need for him to be exhumed for DNA analysis. Worth a try!

I agree, at least some sort of provenance, where he lived, but first we need to find the remains, or what's left of it, if there's anything left.

 

[Beekarina]

We do know where the remains are, or at least it seems the Mothe funeral home knows.

As for solving this case, I believe it can be solved. Trying to interest as many orgs like the DNA Doe project as possible is the way! BCJD is a possible match to MANY long missing young men, and I personally think this is what we should focus on. Finding out his identity could bring closure to another long cold case.

Edited: and I also feel if we're very focused on any one or two possible matches, then it becomes very easy for interest to be dismissed--as in "Oh that had to have been CW. Everyone seems to think it was. Why spend the time and resources?"

 

[Romulus]

I'll tell you how I feel about CW; until we have certain information, for example that he is still missing, I don't consider it as a match, I prefer to focus on the missing people who are on the official lists, then the sketch also differs with the color of the hair... I then insist on the fact that the mother said that it wasn't him... why lie? Why deprive yourself of a place where you can cry anyway if it was him? It doesn't make sense to me... even if I repeat they are particular mental mechanisms and only those involved know what's going on in their heads; so for me to search among the missing, have the body exhumed in some way and carry out the subsequent analyses.

 

[Ciriii57]

Bringing the list of people who viewed BCJD at the funeral home forward. Maybe we can see who was located and who wasn't.

These were located by @Courtaine in their former incarnation as Baudelaire. I thank you immensely.

 

[Sweetluv]

Thanks to you both!

 

[Himako14]

I’m still catching up but regarding the list of people who visited the body. My eyes may be playing tricks on me, but is Piazza listed twice? Looks like there is more under the first time it shows but I can’t make it out.

 

[Sweetluv]

If I'm reading it right, I think the uncle (Mike Piazza) called and made the inquiry about his nephew, Joe Piazza from Birmingham ...so it shows up twice.

 

[summergirl1]

This is another cold case from the New Orleans area I would love to see solved, but anyway, my point is she was exhumed from the Potter's Field section of a New Orleans area cemetery where she was buried a little over a decade after this John Doe and they were able to get usable DNA(although this was before Katrina) which didn't identify her. But I don't know think genetic genealogy has been tried in her case yet. She was obviously much more of a priority as she was a murder victim, but still.. DNA may identify ‘Lady in the Lake’ after 36 years

 

[Sweetluv]

James Zapolski
Missing from NJ in 1966
6 ft 140-150 pounds 15 years old
Brown hair..but, blue/green eyes (eye color don't match up)
Training for a bike race and vanished..
Would walk wearing no shoes to "toughen his feet up." This would have him 23/24 in 1975.

 

[Sweetluv]

 

[Ciriii57]

James Zapolski
Missing from NJ in 1966
6 ft 140-150 pounds 15 years old
Brown hair..but, blue/green eyes (eye color don't match up)
Training for a bike race and vanished..
Would walk wearing no shoes to "toughen his feet up."View attachment 489183

Very similar, apart from eyes not matching, do you think the date of last contact is a little far off? What had he been doing for 9 years? It would make him about 24 years old, maybe a bit old for BCJD?

 

[Sweetluv]

I thought the same thing...about the 9 year lapse and the age not being between 16 and 18 but, something about that pic struck me...thought I would toss it out there.

 

[Romulus]

In these cases we need to make several hypotheses in my opinion, I'll put some of them down

1) Never reported as missing so he is not yet present in the lists of the missing and on the sites (Doe, Namus etc)
2) He is already on the missing persons list but for some reason still no match (mistakes in filling out the form, e.g. wrong eye color, wrong height etc.)
3) Reported as missing but still not present on disappearance sites (this also happens)
4) Not recognized by his family despite knowing that he is the UID (see Wallace family case)
5) Present in the lists and sites of missing persons, but the family members have never seen these sites, and have never recognized him (even today many people do not check the databases), in Italy for example there is still no national database today about the disappeared, an incredible thing.

 

[Courtaine]

The pizzas came twice and I think I see 2 entries for Mrs Wallace as well. Smith rings a bell somewhere, but no Cousins on the list. Nobody came in to view Doyle and below him is someone from Alabama.

 

[Sweetluv]

So they received over 300 calls, but only a handful viewed the body. Makes you wonder if their loved ones who were missing had something distinct to them that the UID did not ..or vice versa (?)
300 calls is alot....7 or 8 views out of 300 seems small. Maybe the mouth scar was mentioned so that ruled him out for many of those callers?