Identified! NH - Hudson, Skeletal Remains, 2005 - Henry Holcomb

[bugaboo]

Thank you, Hammerized, for the update. Hopefully someone knows this man, and we can place a name with the body.

 

[Marilynilpa]

Wow, the remains appear to have been in the woods for as long as 30 years?!?! I spend a lot of time researching cold cases, I'll go back through some of my research material and see if I can find anything that might correlate to this.

I'm also going to post this on the cold case thread.

 

[Marilynilpa]

This was posted under Missing - Information and Support, but since the remains may have been in the woods for 30 yeas, I figured it ought to be posted here as well.

"Hudson — The state medical examiner's office has determined the age, sex and height of the person whose remains were found by a hunter in the woods off of Kienia Road last Tuesday.
According to police Lt. David Bianchi, who is leading the investigation, the remains are of a male over the age of 60 with a height of 5 feet 11 inches to 6 feet 3 inches.

snip

The remains appear to have been in the woods for several years, Bianchi said. The medical examiner's office reported that the remains may have been there for nearly 30 years."

Link: http://gamma.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Age,%20sex%20and%20height%20of%20Hudson%20remains%20determined&articleId=b0e5618d-7d03-49bb-972b-f9e0e5d0f05d

 

[LButler]

No offense to anyone either. It was my original post that started all this and I apologize. However, in my own defense, my post was misquoted. That's the first step to having a smooth experience on here, please read and read again before you post. I tend to skim posts without reading in depth, but if it's something I plan to respond to, I try to re-read everything to make sure I'm not misreading or misunderstanding. But, once again, no problem - we're all here for the same reason. And, yes, some of us are cranky some days (or crankIER some days).

As for the body, 30 years? Does anyone else wonder how they can come up with a magic number like that? It just seems in my mind that once soft tissue is gone and you're left with a skeleton, it would get a little vague as to when a body was dumped or put there? anybody have some inside scoop on aging bones? I have heard of carbon dating but thought that was really inaccurate.

 

[Masterj]

Thank you everyone. I had a bit of rough day yesterday, so I think I was feeling overly sensitive. I truly do enjoy this site (everyone full of compassion and gathering to help). There are truly no hard feelings and I appologize if I overreacted.

 

[Masterj]

Also wanted to add, that many Massachusetts people I know jokingly refer to Hudson, NH as northern Massachusetts due to its close proximity to the border. Plus since it is off of Interstate 93, I wonder if there are any men from MA who fit the vague description we currently have.

 

[shadowangel]

Just going off the age, I found a gentleman who disappeared from Manchester, NH (20 miles from Hudson) in July '63 (okay, that's 40 years...)

Alex Tafralian, 54, was last seen in a Manchester social club with a large amount of cash. The Doe Network details that some authorities believe he was buried in a car under a stream near Bedford, NH.

If we can set aside the age factor, I found another gentleman, Gerard Hanrahan, who disappeared from Quincy, MA (about 50 miles away) in December of '90. He was 49, stood 6' tall and weighed 175. He was last seen running down the street after arguing with his wife and stepdaughter. They reported he had been acting strange for a week.

 

[Marilynilpa]

Just going off the age, I found a gentleman who disappeared from Manchester, NH (20 miles from Hudson) in July '63 (okay, that's 40 years...)

Alex Tafralian, 54, was last seen in a Manchester social club with a large amount of cash. The Doe Network details that some authorities believe he was buried in a car under a stream near Bedford, NH.

If we can set aside the age factor, I found another gentleman, Gerard Hanrahan, who disappeared from Quincy, MA (about 50 miles away) in December of '90. He was 49, stood 6' tall and weighed 175. He was last seen running down the street after arguing with his wife and stepdaughter. They reported he had been acting strange for a week.

I found both of those men as well. As you stated, it looks like LE is pretty sure where Tafralian is buried, they are trying to gather enough info for a search warrant so they can dig up the area around the stream.

Gerard Hanrahan could be a match. By his behavior, it looks like this man might have committed suicide. But no car was found at the location where the remains were found. If he had a car, I wonder if it was ever recovered? Maybe he left it somewhere else, hiked into the woods and killed himself.

I'd like to know if anything was found at or near the site where the remains were found - clothing, personal effects, a gun or other weapon, camping or hunting gear. Also, Hanrahan had four gold teeth - I wonder if any teeth were recovered?

Hopefully when further testing is done, LE will let us know more.

 

[shadowangel]

If it turns out he had a rifle, a large canteen and three poetry books, I'm going back to the Sharon Marshall forum....

 

[Marilynilpa]

:laugh:

If it turns out he had a rifle, a large canteen and three poetry books, I'm going back to the Sharon Marshall forum....

OMG, you have me laughing out loud!

 

[shadowangel]

With our luck, he'll have a motorcycle, an empty rifle holster, and a lock from the Active Lock Co. of 195 Ave A, NYC...

 

[Marilynilpa]

With our luck, he'll have a motorcycle, an empty rifle holster, and a lock from the Active Lock Co. of 195 Ave A, NYC...

. . . and a receipt for a pair of contact lenses purchased in Chicago.

 

[Yaya]

Ok you two nuts :slap: ... I almost choked on my brownie!

 

[shadowangel]

. . . and a receipt for a pair of contact lenses purchased in Chicago.

Okay, I get it...He took the motorcycle and left the contact lenses...
Now we're getting somewhere!
:blowkiss:

 

[mysteriew]

Police say skeletal remains found in the woods in Hudson (New Hampshire) are those of a Nashua man.

Dental records confirm the remains found last month are those of 67-year-old Henry Lawrence Holcomb the second. Holcomb was never reported missing. However police connected him to a report of an abandoned car found about a mile away from where the remains were discovered. That report was filed in July 2003.

Police don't suspect foul play.

A former neighbor says she saw Holcomb packing his van with duffel bags and a bucket of wood during the July Fourth weekend of 2003. Amy Mason says she never saw him after that.
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=4281930&nav=4QcS

 

[mysteriew]

So he laid there from July of 2003, and no one ever reported him missing. To me, that is what is sad. No one cared enough to find out why he wasn't around.

 

[Deirdre]

Hi there, I just found this web site, ironically after just talking to my Mother about her Brother Gerard. I'm curious why you guys seem to have so much interest in this disappearance? Do you know if they ever did confirm who's body it is they found? If anyone reading this post knows anything they can add about Gerard it would be very helpful to my family.
Thank you,
Deirdre (neice of Gerards)

 

[docwho3]

Hi there, I just found this web site, ironically after just talking to my Mother about her Brother Gerard. I'm curious why you guys seem to have so much interest in this disappearance? . . .

I can't speak for the others but my opinion is that we are a curious bunch and it also seems that many of us hope to help bring a more healthy closure to old unsolved cases.

 

[mysteriew]

Hi there, I just found this web site, ironically after just talking to my Mother about her Brother Gerard. I'm curious why you guys seem to have so much interest in this disappearance? Do you know if they ever did confirm who's body it is they found? If anyone reading this post knows anything they can add about Gerard it would be very helpful to my family.
Thank you,
Deirdre (neice of Gerards)

Hi , Deirdre and welcome to WS. A lot of what we do here is dig up as much info as we can on missing persons cases, and try to see if any info can be found on remains that have been found but not identified. In this particular case, remains were found and they are compaing them to known missing persons cases. Evidently your uncle is one of the possibilites that has been brought up for discussion. Please feel free to add to the discussion, comment on anything that you feel might be incorrect or even state your opinion as to the possibility of a match.
If through discussion, it looks like a good match, someone will call LE and ask that they check into the possibility. Please feel free to participate!

 

[shadowangel]

Is this the same case?

http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32291&page=2&pp=25

If so, this man was identified.

Deirdre-If you're talking about the other posts on this thread, several of us had been discussing, at length, an unindentified man whose remains, and several tantalizing clues, had been discovered in a field in PA in 1958. The situation was similar in some ways to the discovery of these unidentified remains.
I felt your uncle was a good possibility for a match to the unidentified remains found in NH. Do you have any information on your uncle's disappearance other than what is posted on the Doe Network? We would be happy to see what we can find.