Identified! WA - Spokane, WhtMale, 50-70, in river, 'Next Please' TShirt, Jun'16 - Donald Nyden

CarlK90245

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The Spokane MedEx office asked me to do a recon of this John Doe found in the Spokane River last week.

The Associated Press

SPOKANE, WASH.

Spokane police are investigating after a body was recovered from the Spokane River.

The Spokesman-Review reports ( http://bit.ly/1t2BXmB ) that the man's body was found Saturday lodged in a downed tree.

Police spokeswoman Officer Teresa Fuller says the man may have been in the river for some time. His identity will be released by the medical examiner after an autopsy has been completed.

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/state/washington/article82079012.html#storylink=cpy

Although the article seems to imply that his identity is known, he in fact is still unidentified.

This was a tough reconstruction, as he had been in the water for quite some time. I show him as bald headed, but his hair might have been sloughed off in the water. Much of his beard remained intact. I decided it was preferable to depict him bald headed rather than to guess a hairstyle.

69c440e8-6a81-42e7-919b-d288dfceb911.jpg



His particulars are as follows:
* White Male
* Date of Discovery: June 4, 2016
* Postmortem Interval: Weeks
* Age: between 50 and 70
* Height: 71 inches (5 feet 11 inches)
* Weight: 147 pounds.
* Tattoos: The name "JUDY" on his left shoulder.
* Dentals: Edentulous (toothless prior to death)
* Head Hair: Unknown
* Facial Hair: Long grey un-trimmed beard.
* Clothing: Yellow polo shirt over beige tee shirt. Tee shirt bears a logo depicting a shaving cream brush and a mug full of shaving cream with the words "Next Please ..." above. Wrangler blue jeans (size 36 x 34) with an orange belt. Black Sketchers shoes (U.S. Men's Size 10).
* Accessories: A black Coreflex XL knee brace on the right leg. Keychain clip with small plastic flashlight attached.
 
Love the recon, Carl. Surprised they asked you to do one so soon! I live a couple hours from Spokane. Wonder if anyone I know knows this guy. I can maybe put up fliers if he isn't ID'd soon, but he seems like an easy ID.
 
Huh. He looks like a guy my brother and I used to know, only 20 years older. I mean exactly like him. Sending email to brother to find out if old friend is still alive.
 
Looking again at the logo on his shirt. It isn't a beer stein as I had previously stated. It looks like a shaving cream brush and a cup full of old-style shaving cream.

Next Please.jpg

I updated the description accordingly in the lead post.
 
Great reconstruction CarlK. With the 5'11" and 147 lbs he was pretty thin. That combined with the shaggy beard and no teeth, makes me think he could have been living on the streets. Was he wearing socks and underwear? The layering of the t-shirt and polo shirt could also indicate that he was homeless. Were his clothes the right size for his height and weight? The XL polo shirt and jeans with a 36 waste seem large for his weight. What condition were the clothes, besides the fact that they were in the water for several weeks? Were they old or new jeans? What's up with the orange belt? Seems like an odd color choice. Do 60 or 70 year old men typically wear Sketchers?

A more general question, can they tell from corpse if a person has worn dentures? Could he have been wearing dentures prior to going into the water? If so, did they search the area to see if they could find them?

Did they give a cause of death?
 
A bit of Googling has turned up the information that "Next Please" is the standard barbershop tag line.

I find it immensely ironic that a man who clearly hasn't been to a barbershop in years is wearing a shaving mug logo shirt. I wonder if there's a clue there?
 
Great reconstruction CarlK. With the 5'11" and 147 lbs he was pretty thin. That combined with the shaggy beard and no teeth, makes me think he could have been living on the streets. Was he wearing socks and underwear? The layering of the t-shirt and polo shirt could also indicate that he was homeless. Were his clothes the right size for his height and weight? The XL polo shirt and jeans with a 36 waste seem large for his weight. What condition were the clothes, besides the fact that they were in the water for several weeks? Were they old or new jeans? What's up with the orange belt? Seems like an odd color choice. Do 60 or 70 year old men typically wear Sketchers?

A more general question, can they tell from corpse if a person has worn dentures? Could he have been wearing dentures prior to going into the water? If so, did they search the area to see if they could find them?

Did they give a cause of death?

I can answer the Sketchers question. Yes. They're very comfortable, apparently. My 84-year-old dad even had a pair.
 
Was he wearing socks and underwear?

He wore blue swimsuit trunks under his pants. There are no photos that show whether he was wearing socks.

Were his clothes the right size for his height and weight?

Of course, his clothes are soaking wet in the photos, but they do appear to be loose fitting.

The XL polo shirt and jeans with a 36 waste seem large for his weight. What condition were the clothes, besides the fact that they were in the water for several weeks?

Were they old or new jeans?

The pants appeared to be in good condition - no apparent rips, and they weren't badly faded. The shirts were probably in good condition when he went into the water, but there were rips that were probably caused by the current.

What's up with the orange belt? Seems like an odd color choice.

The belt was one of those canvas strap-type belts with two D-Shaped metal buckles - like this one:

pt_17675.jpeg


A more general question, can they tell from corpse if a person has worn dentures? Could he have been wearing dentures prior to going into the water? If so, did they search the area to see if they could find them?

No information in that regard. If he was wearing dentures, and lost them in the water, it is very unlikely that they would be found. The Spokane River is a fairly large river.

Did they give a cause of death?

No COD was disclosed.
 
5'11 and 147 lbs. is skinny but not necessarily 'homeless' skinny. My father is 6'3, 145 lbs. and he is a very irritable and "twitchy" person. (I think people would mistake him for a homeless guy, probably a drug addict as well, if he didn't have his neatly trimmed Chevron mustache and button-up shirts.) This guy seems to have a lot more weight in his face than my dear old dad, but I'm guessing this is just because bodies distribute weight differently.

Those canvas-type belts are generally cheaper than leather belts. Very cheap at places like Wal-Mart. They break more easily.

Wish there was a way to tell if he had worn dentures in the past. The thought of some poor old man's dentures floating along the Spokane River is very odd.
 
I also noticed the fullness of the face compared to the estimated weight. Yes people do distribute weight differently, but it could also be an indication of an illness or that he recently lost a lot of weight. Since the clothes seem too large for his weight, I think we should take that into when looking for potential matches. If this poor man is somebody that disappeared a few years ago, his weight could have been much higher when he went missing.
 
I also noticed the fullness of the face compared to the estimated weight. Yes people do distribute weight differently, but it could also be an indication of an illness or that he recently lost a lot of weight. Since the clothes seem too large for his weight, I think we should take that into when looking for potential matches. If this poor man is somebody that disappeared a few years ago, his weight could have been much higher when he went missing.

The face was very badly bloated from the extended time in the river. Although I compensated for that, his face could have been thinner.
 
I noticed that the shirt was XL. Often tall guys buy larger sizes to compensate for their height. At 5'11 he was fairly tall but not super tall. Going back to my dad (he's the only tall underweight man I know lol), he often buys larger sizes to compensate for his height (and also because he thinks people will think him to be effeminate if the clothes aren't hanging limply from his bony body). I would think an XL would be big for him if those measurements are accurate. Could he have lost weight through decomposition, and they reported how much his remains weighed, or something?
 
I noticed that the shirt was XL. Often tall guys buy larger sizes to compensate for their height. At 5'11 he was fairly tall but not super tall. Going back to my dad (he's the only tall underweight man I know lol), he often buys larger sizes to compensate for his height (and also because he thinks people will think him to be effeminate if the clothes aren't hanging limply from his bony body). I would think an XL would be big for him if those measurements are accurate. Could he have lost weight through decomposition, and they reported how much his remains weighed, or something?

IMO 5'11" is not so tall that he would be likely to wear larger shirts to compensate for his tallness. My husband is 6' and weighs about 165 lbs. To me, he is perfectly proportioned in the tall and slender kind of way. He wears size 33 waist jeans and size large shirts. He hates if his clothes are too loose. (Says he looks like the scarecrow on Wizard of Oz if his clothes are baggy.) Like you basing your thoughts on your father, my comments are from my experience. Of course we don't know how this man liked to wear his clothes. My observation is just that he might have lost weight since he went missing, so we should not discount missing persons based on his weight at time of death.
 
Here is a long shot, but I think it's worth posting. Willard Arent Bennett, 73 years old from the Olympia/Tacoma area some 300 miles west of Spokane. It was reported that he was last seen in San Diego, CA and he was in the early stages of dementia in 2013. He could have traveled back to Washington and ended up in Spokane. NamUs has him listed as 5'8" but California has him at 5'10".
https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/23217/17/
http://dojapp.doj.ca.gov/missing/detail.asp?FCN=4501334700127

image.aspx
 
I believe the shoe may be spelled without a "t" - Skecher.
 

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