AL Damian Kinte Dill (20) - Montgomery AL, 2005

[LongTimeChinaTime]

Damian Kinte Dill – The Charley Project

5204DMAL - Damian Kinte Dill

See Charley Project and Doe Network Link above. Damian Kinte Dill was 20 years old when he was last seen on 2/15/2005 in Montgomery, AL

This is another one of an endless amount of adult men’s cases with few details in it, but with Damian there is one little lead that we can use to at least theorize a few things: It is said on the case that it is possible Damian “went to the Job Corps in Florida”. Of course, a quick search on Google doesn’t come up with any further information about there being any record of him actually being accepted into or showing up at a Jobs Corps campus, so without a report on that we just don’t know if he ever did go to the Job Corps. BUT, there is another deet on the Doe Network case for Damian: The doe file gives two dates for Damian going missing. It says “Missing since December 15, 2005” on one section, but that he was “last seen on February 15, 2005” on another. I note that neither Charley Project or Doe Network seems to provide a date of birth for Damian. I could only speculate as to why no birth date, but one idea is him being reported missing by someone who did not know him that well, or just that the info simply never made it onto the case file. A quick google search does not turn up any internet family activity IE anyone posting looking for Damian, Facebook groups etc, though Damian went missing in 2005, when social media was not used in as many applications as today. It is always possible there is stuff out there, but I am not skilled at advanced searching. If it’s not on the top couple pages of results, and subsequent results look less and less relevant, I give up!

My notes taken as a whole above, I am left to consider a few possibilities about Damian. I consider the possibility either his parents could have been older, his extended family and friend group could have been small, and who knows if he had any social media in 2005. A lot of people did have it in 2005, but not everyone, technology took time to extend its reach and since I live in the Deep South, I can report that even in 2024, I routinely come across people in their 40s and 50s (Damian would be nearing 40 today), who do not have email or a smartphone.

Since there is some inconsistency in the reported date Damian went missing, yet always a mention about the Job Corps, does this mean Damian could have just dropped out of sight shortly after telling many people he had plans to join the Job Corps? Could he have attempted to or completed travel to Florida, or even elsewhere? Could Job Corps be a red herring and maybe Damian left Montgomery for other reasons? Perhaps to a big city? The date inconsistency leads me to wonder if he was reported missing months after he actually was last seen, perhaps by someone close to him who had expected they should have heard from him after awhile but didn’t. Who knows if Damian had a cellphone. I am a year older than Damian, and didn’t get my first cellphone until 2004.

As you can understand most of this is intellectual speculation on my part, but I have always found that you can at least generate reasonable ideas with few clues.

Whatever the case, Damian’s case appears to have been open and unsolved for almost 20 years. Somebody posted a thread about Damian here on Websleuths in 2010, but it got no interaction.

 

[Caring1]

According to the newspaper article below dated 2/15/06, Damian was reported missing by his relatives on February 1, 2006 and date last seen was December 15, 2005.

His NamUs link is below as well.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

 

[LongTimeChinaTime]

According to the newspaper article below dated 2/15/06, Damian was reported missing by his relatives on February 1, 2006 and date last seen was December 15, 2005.

His NamUs link is below as well.

View attachment 523308
View attachment 523309

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

Thank you so much for pulling this up. So there really was something to the difference in dates I had seen in the Doe and Charley sources I posted, only it would seem the 2/15/2005 dating in those sources was wrong. I wonder what is behind the 1.5 month delay in reporting Dill missing, and if it means either his family had an idea he might leave town for one reason or another (Job Corps), only once they didn’t hear from him for a long time then they were prompted to report him OR if instead it just means Dill didn’t live with his relatives so they just didn’t notice his absence for a little while?

 

[Aurora90]

Maybe the last time the family physically saw him was Feb, but he kept in touch via telephone until December of that year? I have wondered if he was St Louis John Doe.

 

[Aurora90]

There is a strong possibility that Damian is 2007 St Louis John Doe. This John Doe was found floating in the Mississippi River. Seeing as Damian was originally a resident of Compton, California and was thinking of going to Florida, it is clear he was very mobile. On top of that, the resemblance is incredibly striking.


I have sent this tip along to the Montgomery Police Department, and also sent this tip to Clara Land who is the Criminal Intelligence Analyst for the Missing Persons Unit in the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

MO - MO - St Louis, Miss River, BlkMale 16-30, UP7348, "Amerikus" & "Triple Crown" t-shirt, Sz10 Dickie boots, Star Wars The Phantom Menace watch, Jun'07

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) 1217UMMO 1217UMMO - Unidentified Male Date of Discovery: June 13, 2007 Location of Discovery: St. Louis, Missouri Estimated Date of Death: Months prior State of Remains: Decomposed Cause of Death: Unknown Physical Description...

www.websleuths.com

 

[LongTimeChinaTime]

There is a strong possibility that Damian is 2007 St Louis John Doe. This John Doe was found floating in the Mississippi River. Seeing as Damian was originally a resident of Compton, California and was thinking of going to Florida, it is clear he was very mobile. On top of that, the resemblance is incredibly striking.
View attachment 523725View attachment 523724

I have sent this tip along to the Montgomery Police Department, and also sent this tip to Clara Land who is the Criminal Intelligence Analyst for the Missing Persons Unit in the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

I agree they are very striking in similarity!

Hopefully they can do a DNA comparison.

 

[Aurora90]

The only thing that confused me was could he go upriver? is that even a thing? Then I read this article about St Louis John Doe which states that it's possible.

River Man case frustrates police
The fact that no one has called leads Gieseke, the city police captain, to believe the man isn't from the St. Louis area. But investigators can't necessarily focus on river towns to the north.

"Bodies can get caught up in a vacuum underneath barges and be carried upriver," Gieseke said. "The river can be a place that hides a lot of secrets."

Vize's sketch shows the man with a slight smile, something Vize did on purpose so he could show the man's teeth. Because of decomposition, the teeth were one of the few "knowns," Vize said. Vize hopes it can solve the case.

"I'm pretty confident it will look just like this guy," Vize said. "I just try to calculate what the guy would look like in life."

The more I look into it, I continue to be certain this is him. I have dug into Damian's history. He came from a good home until his mother started seeing someone who was not the best influence. Someone who was part of a well-known gang in California (Damian is actually from Compton)

Then within a short amount of time things changed. Lots of family trauma and lots of abuse. That tracks with how well John Doe appeared to be cared for because he was...until he wasn't.

 

[Aurora90]

Lastly, this John Doe was wearing a Triple Crown shirt. Triple Crown Sports is a California sports youth league. Damian is from Compton California.


View attachment 523757

Bingo. This is Damian.

 

[LongTimeChinaTime]

The only thing that confused me was could he go upriver? is that even a thing? Then I read this article about St Louis John Doe which states that it's possible.



The more I look into it, I continue to be certain this is him. I have dug into Damian's history. He came from a good home until his mother started seeing someone who was not the best influence. Someone who was part of a well-known gang in California (Damian is actually from Compton)

Then within a short amount of time things changed. Lots of family trauma and lots of abuse. That tracks with how well John Doe appeared to be cared for because he was...until he wasn't.

In a situation like this he could have then left home, to get away from a rough environment, but did not have the resources to support himself in a good way and could have become transient if this was the case. This could also explain, if the St Louis Doe is Damian, the presence of an extended period of time between him being last seen by those close to him, and the body being found (18 months). He may have hopped around in shaky circumstances until meeting his end sometime in the spring or early summer of 2007.

Of course, while the comparison of the doe is very compelling, there is a distance of space and time between the case and the doe, so I guess we won’t know until they do the DNA.

Coming from an LGBTQIA background, I have the cognitive bias to want to often consider LGBTQIA matters as being something to consider whenever men vanish from their roots, as many LGBTQIA have historically been estranged from family and wind up in tenuous circumstances far from home. But of course in reality, this angle likely only plays a part in a minority of cases, and people leave for all kinds of reasons.

 

[Aurora90]

I think John Doe being found with a t-shirt from a sports league in California is what has solidified this for me.

That can't be a coincidence. But I could be wrong.

Montgomery Police were very kind in assisting me, and I have been directed to Sgt Clark, the detective assigned to the case. I left him a voicemail and I will be speaking with him on Monday.

Hopefully we will know soon.

 

[Caring1]

I think John Doe being found with a t-shirt from a sports league in California is what has solidified this for me.

That can't be a coincidence. But I could be wrong.

Montgomery Police were very kind in assisting me, and I have been directed to Sgt Clark, the detective assigned to the case. I left him a voicemail and I will be speaking with him on Monday.

Hopefully we will know soon.

Nice work and thank you for your diligence in working to bring this young man home. Crossing fingers and saying a prayer. The dentals look identical to me. Anxious for you to speak with the detective now.

 

[Aurora90]

Nice work and thank you for your diligence in working to bring this young man home. Crossing fingers and saying a prayer. The dentals look identical to me. Anxious for you to speak with the detective now.

Thank you. I work really hard to advocate, especially for those who are black and missing. Monte Pointe Jabbar is another case where everything lined up so I called it in and police confirmed he was the John Doe found in the Chicago River 8 days later.

I won't go into specific detail about why I do this because it is for a really personal reason, but I will say I have found it fulfilling to help out in cases that are maybe somewhat abandoned. It helps heal the part of me that wasn't helped by Law Enforcement when I needed it the most. Helping others in turn works to heal the pain inside of me.

Even though I am anxious to speak with the detective, I am also hopeful that the family can get the closure they deserve.

And if this isn't Damian, at least it gets both cases back into the minds of Law Enforcement.

 

[Aurora90]

I also have a strong lead on Amerikus, I think the shirt he was found wearing was not his, but his gf's... She has family in and frequently visits Florida. I wonder if he had plans with her for the future, then after breaking up he became despondent.

 

[Aurora90]

Seargent Clark gave me a call. He stated that there was no one on file named Damian missing out of Montgomery in 2005. I explained that he was in Namus and his file stated as such. He couldn't find who I was referring to. I am very unsure now as to if this is an active investigation.

Lastly, Amerikus is the name of an individual who when young, lived with her mother. She now lives elsewhere. But at that time, her mother worked for the United States Airforce out of Montgomery Alabama. That is a lot of commonalities for me to think it's a coincidence.

All this is leaving me very confused if I am being honest. I was so sure that this was a match, but now I feel foolish.

 

[LongTimeChinaTime]

Seargent Clark gave me a call. He stated that there was no one on file named Damian missing out of Montgomery in 2005. I explained that he was in Namus and his file stated as such. He couldn't find who I was referring to. I am very unsure now as to if this is an active investigation.

Lastly, Amerikus is the name of an individual who when young, lived with her mother. She now lives elsewhere. But at that time, her mother worked for the United States Airforce out of Montgomery Alabama. That is a lot of commonalities for me to think it's a coincidence.

All this is leaving me very confused if I am being honest. I was so sure that this was a match, but now I feel foolish.

No actually I think you were on the right track since that match potential you shared is striking. You said you contacted law enforcement by phone, it may help if you find the email address of Missouri and Montgomery agencies and email them the two case files, both the doe and Damian’s case.

Another possibility, is that the case was closed at the Police department (either Damian was later found to be alive or was found deceased) and Charley Project etc has not updated their list. I say this because one of my first Charley Project case posts on Websleuths a couple weeks ago…. A websleuths sleuth found the dude totally alive within 2 days of me posting and not only that, he had just gotten hired at a new job like 3 weeks ago and is on a Facebook post for the company with his picture, welcoming him, and he is giving the same damn posture and expression as he was in his Drivers License photo on his Charley project, only he was 10 years or so older!!!

I notice I didn’t seem to see any active police files for Damian Kinte Dill upon cursory searches, and I think it might have been the same for Jared Parker (the alive dude), so yes, it is possible we are chasing our own tail over some dude who could be selling insurance in California for all we know. He may have become estranged from his family and then police found him alive and the case was closed without fanfare. Possibly. But I think I’m going to make a point in making sure I find the active point in ensuring there is an unsolved police file before I post here, because it is becoming evident the Charley Project and Namus and Doe may not always be up to date.

There is also another Florida case I ran across where a dude was reported missing in 2020, and a Google search returns an arrest news article, same dude photo and all, had gotten pulled over in 2023 for speeding in a stolen truck and tried to furnish a fake ID… so he was just being slippery for 3 years and not only that, the police missing case file on him is actually listed as unsolved. And it was certainly the same dude.