Published November 10, 2020
Cops Withholding ID of Manorville Cold Case Victim
Seventeen years ago Tuesday a mushroom hunter reported finding in Manorville the remains of a murder victim who Suffolk County police say they’ve since identified, but whose name has not been released, the
Press has learned.
The victim’s family asked authorities not to release the man’s name when he was identified in 2015, but the case remains an active homicide investigation, a Suffolk police spokeswoman recently told the
Press. Experts say withholding a murder victim’s name is rare and will likely make it more difficult for detectives to find the killer.
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The man’s body was discovered about three miles east of where
Valerie Mack and
Jessica Taylor were found dead less than a mile apart in 2000 and 2003, respectively, also in Manorville. While police put a name to Taylor’s mutilated remains relatively quickly, it wasn’t until this May — 20 years later — when Suffolk police announced they identified Mack.
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At least a half a dozen bodies have been found in the Manorville area over the past 20 years.
The man whose name police are withholding was found five months after Taylor. His remains were uncovered in a wooded area about 300 yards south of the Long Island Expressway near Toppings Path and more than a mile west of exit 71. The mushroom picker who made the grim find waited 10 days before reporting it to police on Nov. 10, 2003 because he was scared, but ultimately made the call after having nightmares, the
New York Post reported at the time.
“The body looked decomposed, like it had been there three or four months,” the hunter told the
Post, which didn’t print his name because he feared for his safety. “I was terrified and I didn’t tell anyone except my wife.”
When the remains were first discovered, they were so decomposed that the gender was not immediately clear. A forensic anthropologist initially confirmed that the remains as that of a 35- to 50-year-old man “with no trauma done to the skeleton,” police said at the time, the
North Shore Sun reported. He was described as a white man, five-feet, six-inches tall with brown hair.
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Suffolk police declined to release any further updates on the case. But county investigators have acknowledged how important a name can be in getting justice for unidentified murder victims.
Link -
Cops Withholding ID of Manorville Cold Case Victim
Edit to add: If it is not clear they are talking about 2003 Manorville John Doe found 4 month after Jesica Taylor's body. It was never released, only now, that he was identified 5 years ago, in 2015! Despite this being murder investigation his name is still witheld from public.
