Identified! CA - Yolo Co., WhtMale 1214UMCA, 25-40, in Sacramento River, Sep'87 - James Miller

This one tugs at my heartstrings. He dove into the Sacramento River to try to save people who were involved in a car accident. He was later found drown.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1214umca.html

The poor guy!

Here's his file at the Yolo County Sheriff's webpage (no photos):

http://www.yolosheriffs.com/pdf/Coroner's Unidentified Case 6397-301-1987.pdf

He might be a challenge considering there are no dentals or body x-rays. IMO he looks quite a bit older than 30-40 in his sketch.

oh this is so sad .. he surely went right to heaven for his heroism

None of these are great matches, but it's a starting point!

This one is a little on the young side, but a possibility:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/556dmca.html

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/998dmca.html

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2066dmca.html

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/776dmca.html

I like this one the most, though the height and weight are low for the UID:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3947dmca.html

tatertot said:

The poor guy!

Here's his file at the Yolo County Sheriff's webpage (no photos):

http://www.yolosheriffs.com/pdf/Coroner's Unidentified Case 6397-301-1987.pdf

He might be a challenge considering there are no dentals or body x-rays. IMO he looks quite a bit older than 30-40 in his sketch.

Click to expand...

I wonder if there is dna...

Julespa said:

This one tugs at my heartstrings. He dove into the Sacramento River to try to save people who were involved in a car accident. He was later found drown.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1214umca.html

Click to expand...

He is described as white, but the sketch is of a Hispanic male. That makes the case even harder to solve.

ASU2USC said:

None of these are great matches, but it's a starting point!

This one is a little on the young side, but a possibility:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/556dmca.html

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/998dmca.html

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2066dmca.html

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/776dmca.html

I like this one the most, though the height and weight are low for the UID:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3947dmca.html

Click to expand...

I agree with your last possibility. Wouldn't worry about the height or weight difference. Read where some people are as much as 4" off on the height. Weight can fluctuate.

ASU2USC said:

None of these are great matches, but it's a starting point!

This one is a little on the young side, but a possibility:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/556dmca.html

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/998dmca.html

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2066dmca.html

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/776dmca.html

I like this one the most, though the height and weight are low for the UID:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3947dmca.html

Click to expand...

I think Phillip Deshayes may be a possibility. I also wonder if there is DNA, it seems that there was a sloppy job done for identifying this man but I could be wrong. He was found soon after he drown, wonder why no dentals or fingerprints?

Anyone feel comfortable asking Yolo County LE how long he was thought to have been living near the river? That could give us a better idea of how far back to search.

Just thougt I would emerge from lurking to help out a little. I'm starting to get the hang of how everyone does this.

The UID appears to be about 6'0" and 190 lbs.

Case File 1214UMCA


The victim was discovered on September 22, 1987 in Yolo County, California
Estimated Date of Death: September 19, 1987
Cause of Death: Drowning
Formerly Hot Case 137

Approx Age: 30-40 yrs
Approximate Height and Weight: 6'0"; 190 lbs
Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown hair with full Moustache; Brown eyes. (no tattoos or markings)
Clothing: Dark plaid shirt, blue jeans, brown work boots.
Fingerprints: Not Available
Dentals: Not Available (partial upper plate according to Yolo Sheriff's page link above)


In the linked cases in the previous post, Phillip DeShayes and David Urbach both appear to be too small, each being well under 6' and weighing no more than 140 lbs.

OTOH, Frederick Manuel Aragon was a large man and shared many similar characteristics. Not seeing much of a physical resemblance, though.

Fredrick Manuel Aragon
Missing since July 18, 1987 from Vacaville, Solano County, California.


Date Of Birth: August 2, 1958
Age at Time of Disappearance: 28 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 6'3; 185 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: Hispanic male. Black hair; black eyes. Aragon wears glasses.
Medical Conditions: He has a behavior disorder.
Clothing: He was wearing blue jeans and a red checkered long-sleeve shirt.
Dentals: X-Rays Not Available.

In the meantime, I'm going to check surrounding states.

God bless this man. We often look down on transients but this man lost his life trying to save other people. There is a special place in heaven for him. I hope we find out his name. :angel:

I bet any amount of money on Deshayes. When I read that the the victim lived in a transient camp, the very first thing I thought of was due to mental illness, probably schizophrenia. Reading between the lines, Deshayes was held on a Baker Act subsequent to an arrest on May 8, 1986 and prior to his disappearance. His family probably had disowned him by that time.

Please look at this case, this man died attempting to save others.
http://www.yolosheriffs.com/pdf/Coroner's Unidentified Case 6397-301-1987.pdf
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1214umca.html


His Namus link (with postmortem photo)
https://identifyus.org/cases/7446

There is some info that is not on DN.

A list of exclusions:
Michael Black 1956 North Carolina
Brian Carlstrom 1959 California
Rogelio Cerda 1959 Texas
William Hollingsworth 1951 North Carolina
David Hoober 1947 Washington
Ron Knutson 1955 California
CHARLES LASSELL, JR. 1962 Connecticut
Jimmy Maughon 1947 Georgia
Gregory Mitchell 1965 Florida
Douglas Mueller 1958 Arizona
James Norris 1949 Florida
Randolph Sedlack 1960 Virginia
David Thomson 1947 Minnesota
Marion Watts 1956 Louisiana
Roland Welsh Jr. 1945 Texas

None of the missing men mentioned in the thread are on the list. I didn't find Namus pages for any of them.

There is a partial DNA profile for John Doe that's been entered in databases.

He was wearing:
Dark plaid button up shirt, blue levi pants with a brown belt
Brown lace up work boots

His hair is red-brownish in color (it looks dark in the photo), he had a full mustache and a cleft chin. Although dental charts are not available it is noted that the natural teeth were intact and there was an upper partial denture in place.

He had personal papers including a birth certificate for Daniel Joseph Read, application for a social security card, etc. After investigating it was determined that the unidentified person is NOT Daniel Joseph Read and the birth certificate he carried was not his own.

A fugitive of some kind? If he wanted to change his identity for some reason he may have wanted to change his looks too and maybe we should also look at men who didn't have a mustache when they disappeared.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/556dmca.html
I like Aragon's clothing for a match (blue jeans and a red checkered long-sleeve shirt) and it says he has a behavior disorder which might have caused something to happen that he felt he needed to disappear. His eyes and hair are said to be black instead of Brown. No Namus page. I can't tell from the photo if he has a cleft chin. There may be a darker shadow in his chin but it could be something else. It does not show on another version of the photo.


Image on the left from http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/556dmca.html, image on the right from
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/a/aragon_fredrick.html

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/998dmca.html
I think Peavey's looks are a pretty good match but the circumstances not so much. He was last seen at the Golden Gate Bridge which sounds like he was a suicide by jumping but I suppose someone could be seen at the Bridge for other reasons. I don't see a cleft chin but it's not a great photo on DN and Charley's is worse http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/p/peavey_george.html He has a scar over his eye and the coroner's pdf says no scars were noted on the UID. Dunno, you can't see the scar in the photo so maybe you could miss it in an autopsy. He has dentals available. No idea about DNA or the existence of a partial denture. No Namus page.


http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/u/urbach_daniel.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2066dmca.html
disappeared wearing brown shoes so it could be something that matches. Or not, it doesn't say they were work boots. I don't see a cleft chin in the photo but it's a rather grainy photo.


http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/776dmca.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/images/c/cunfermann_nicholas.jpg
Cunfermann has a scar that is not noted in the UID description. I see a shadow that might be a cleft chin but these photos are not splendid either.


http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3947dmca.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/d/deshayes_phillip.html
I don't see a cleft chin.

Sketch of this victim:



The victim was located in the Sacramento River in Yolo County, California on September 22, 1987.

He was a victim of an accidental drowning when he entered the Sacramento River in an attempt to aid the victims of a vehicle which had plunged off the open Tower Bridge into the river.

He had been living as a transient along the west shoreline camps of the Sacramento River.

Wikipedia entry on cleft chins: Cleft chin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IMHO, Fredrick Aragon does appear to have a dimple in the center of his chin. His photo looks more like an "official" record (driver's license/identification card, workplace I.D. or possibly a LE mug shot, though I don't want to imply he had a criminal record since that was never stated in any of his MP profiles) than a family photo taken at home, and that leaves the possibility that it was not a recent photo. The UID does look older than he does - maybe the photo was taken in his early 20s and that accounts for the difference?

Why do they not have fingerprints/dental charts?

Edit: there is no indication of DNA on file. If they do not have any of those, how do they expect to make a match?

What about David B Widner? Resemblance and stats are similar, though he is slightly older than the estimate for the UID (he would've been 43 in '87 vs. the 30-40 estimate).

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/widner_david.html

Julespa said:

This one tugs at my heartstrings. He dove into the Sacramento River to try to save people who were involved in a car accident. He was later found drown.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1214umca.html

Click to expand...

Hello all,

I just stumbled upon this. My father went missing in late 86 as he was on the run from some charges. The false identity started in Missouri and has been tracked all over the United States. He was from Iowa originally. We had him declared dead in 2000 after the FBI failed to find him for years. I hope this is the closure my family needs... everything matches up to the partial dental. Should know in the next couple of months.

This person was identified as James Wray Miller according to the post in the Unidentified and Unclaimed People From the 1930-2018 Facebook group.
Rest in peace, James.