Old article Ive had, it has more details about this case....I havent been here in a long while but I was working on this case many years ago and was posting on the original old thread. I live 30 mins from Emporia and have been up and down 58 many times. We had many theories years ago...some thought he was a minor and did not have a DL, that being the reason he had no ID, some even thought he might not have been old enough for DL, under 16 at the time of crash. Also no one ever gave the ht. & wt. of Michael Hager, so some thought it could have been possible that the clothes he was wearing were Hagers and he showered and changed at the fathers house? Also there was a big issue with the Fila shoes, I being an old Deadhead myself would not have been caught dead (no pun intended) in a pair of Fila...flip flops, sandals, and maybe boots, if we wore tennis shoes, usually would be Vans, Converse Allstars, and plain Nikes...but that was rare..Filas though Never!!! And I myself living in the area and having drivin 95 and 85 on a daily basis, never could understand why they were driving on 58. He was supposedly headed to Inman SC and was coming from Glouchester VA (his dads) He should have already been on 85, You can merge onto 85 from 95 in Petersburg (see maps) but instead he stayed on 95 for another 45 mins and then got off on 58 to cut over to 85, which takes an additional 50 mins???? NO that doesnt even make any kind of sense??? Another stop maybe? Pick up Jasons stuff?
Victim In '95 Crash Still Unidentified
The Washington Times
Sunday, July 7, 1996
By Bill Baskervill, Associated Press
Emporia, VA -- A year after his death, a young man with a star tattooed on his arm, Grateful Dead concert ticket stubs in his pocket and a letter from two Carolines lies unidentified on a cold mortuary slab.
He was in his 20's -- and except for the letter -- carried no identification on June 26, 1995 when the Volkswagen van in which he was riding rammed two large loblolly pines along Route 58 three miles west of Emporia.
In the pockets of his Levi's 505 jeans were the ticket stubs, four quarters, a yellow cigarette lighter and this note: "To Jason, Sorry we had to go. See you around. Caroline O. and Caroline T."
Jason - if that is his name - waits for someone to claim his remains from the state Medical Examiner's Office in Richmond.
"I would like to find out who he is and close it out," said State Police Trooper T. E. Jones who is frustrated by the leads on the man's identity.
Trooper Jones said the driver of the van, Michael Eric Hager, 21, of Inman, SC, aparently fell asleep. Mr. Hager, a student at the University of South Carolina, and his lone passenger were flung through the windshield and into the trees, Trooper Jones said. Both died of massive head injuries.
The Trooper believes the passenger had attended a Grateful Dead concert in Washington's RFK Stadium the weekend before the Monday accident.
He said Mr. Hager left his girlfriend's Fairfax County home around 7:45 a.m. on the day of the crash and picked up the hitchhiker later. Mr. Hager drove to his father's house in Gloucester County, where neighbors told the trooper they remembered seeing another man with Mr. Hager. The two left Gloucester County about noon, according to the message Mr. Hager left for his father. That would have put them at the accicent scene about 1:30 p.m., the trooper said.
Mr. Hager was enroute to his mother's home in Inman. Where the hitchhiker was headed is not known. Evidently, he was not following the Grateful Dead tour because the band's next date was in the Midwest and Mr. Hager was headed south, Trooper Jones noted.
The hitchhiker was wearing a Gratreful Dead Summer Tour 1995 T-shirt, light blue denim jeans, blue Fila athletic shoes, white athletic socks and macrame and bead necklaces. He was white, 5 teet 8 inches tall, 169 pounds. He had shoulder-length brown hair and brown eyes.
A crudely drawn star tattoo was on his upper left arm. His left earlobe was pierced, but there was no earring.
Trooper Jones has run the hitchhiker's fingerprints through the FBI database and sent his description to every police agency in the country to no avail. He found the man who sold the two Grateful Dead tickets, but to someone other than the hitchhiker. The tickets, for seats in separate sections of RFK Stadium, could have changed hands many times before the hitchhiker got them.
The next step is to check the fingerprints with the Secret Service, which has a larger database than the FBI, the trooper said.
Gladys Culp of Salisbury, NC took up Jason's cause by shopping the story to news organizations. She has mailed journalists copies of a Virginia State Police sketch of the man and a summary of the case.
"I just felt bad there would be somebody that young out there," said Mrs. Culp, who has sons ages 17, 18, and 21. "Maybe he has a family searching for him."
Robert Holloway, administrator of the state Medical Examiner's Office, said it is unusual for a body to remain unidentified for as long as the hitchhiker's. The state will hold the body indefinitely, he said.
Authorities urge anyone with information about the hitchhiker to call Virginia State Police Trooper Jones at 804-634-4454
Map 1 95>85
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...79.296645&sspn=3.852459,10.777588&ie=UTF8&z=7
Map 2 95>58>85
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...5.677068&sspn=30.323858,86.220703&ie=UTF8&z=7
