Moderator note: The john doe was falsely identified as Scott Michael Morris. Scott is still listed as missing. Charley project link for Scott's case http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/morris_scott.html Scott Michael Morris The victim was located January 7, 1990 near Owensboro in rural Daviess County, Kentucky. He was identified in September 2007 as Scott Michael Morris, who was last seen leaving a convenience store in Indianapolis in 1978 when he was 14. Morris' family at the time told police that the boy frequently ran away from home but usually returned. His grandmother reported him missing, but it was not until 1989 that the family filed a formal missing persons report. The body was identified after Indianapolis police contacted Kentucky investigators to share a cold case. A description of the missing boy matched the body, and tests on DNA samples from Morris' relatives confirmed his identity. How does a child disappear and manage to survive on the street all those years? At least now he can be buried with a name. I was hoping to find a picture to compare to the recon, but came up with nothing.
It doesn't specifically say how long he'd been deceased when located. Maybe it just took that long to find his remains? Just a thought....
Yes I was thinking the same thing. If he was found in quite a rural area he could have been deceased for all that time. What a length of time it took for the parents to file that report!
I think I read in another article that they determined he was in his twenties when he died. I will see if I can find a link. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20747268/ It says a "man was found nude,beaten." If his body had been there since he went missing, wouldn't it have said skeletal remains found instead?
Here is a link to another websluethes disscusion on this http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53373
In late 1989, a friend of the family received a strange phone call from him. "He said he was working for a carnival. He didn't say where. They asked if he was okay. He said he was okay. Real brief, he said, 'I got to go,'" said Morris. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20747268 So he was alive up until 1989...wonder what happened after that call.
How intriguing that he was alive all that time then! It seems strange that he would have just called one family friend put of the blue if he hadnt been in touch with them all that time.
Further testing has revealed the victim is not related to the Morris family, and is in fact not Scott Michael Morris.
Why? What happened? If he was originally identified by DNA, what further testing could they do to rule the DNA out? Do you have a link, Green Hornet? I don't like it that the family waited 11 years to file a missing person's report. ETA: his Charley page says DNA analysis was done in January 2009 http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/morris_scott.html I wonder if he was healthy. Is he really 14 in the photo? Here's a link about the mistaken identification http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?s=7059575 It doesn't say how the lab ID was done but the family identified him from sketches and similarity to his brothers. Very strange. I wonder how they know it was really him. Did anyone follow up on the carnivals? Could they have traced the call? The article also says the family has a suspect. I don't want to cast any stones but this is a bit hinky to me. A family that has a potential suspect who has taken an unhealthy interest in their missing child and waits for years to get the child on missing persons lists? And even then it's not the parents who contact the police, it's a grandmother. Edit 2: Here's a link to police press release describing the identification process: http://www.kentuckystatepolice.org/posts/press/2009/post16_pr04_21_09.htm
Another link about the family reaction to the news that it's not Scott http://www.theindychannel.com/news/19463910/detail.html This explains that there was a delay in between the stages of DNA identification: http://www.courierpress.com/news/2009/apr/22/body-found-2007-remains-unidentified/
Wow, this story can't possibly get any stranger. That poor grandma, finally thinking she had closure only to find out it wasn't him.
Scott Michael Morris is still listed as missing. Strange turn of events. Scott's Charley project listing: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/morris_scott.html
The Charley project page says that he also contacted his family three days after he went missing to tell them he was working for a carnival in Pennsylvania. The 1989 call to a family friend was a second call. Hmm, Charley Project won't let me copy and paste, but here's a snip... http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/morris_scott.html Two calls, if they were sure it was him, would lend some credence to the idea that he was a runaway, but I wonder where he is now?
Unidentified Person Case I thought that this unidentified young man found in Colorado could possibly be him, but at the time i submitted I had not yet seen where he was supposed to have been in contact with friends in 1989? The weird part was they found matchbooks with his body, and one was from Pennsylvania, and the other from a state that borders Illinois... Which seemed at the time definitely worth submitting him. NAMUS does not mention him calling a friend in 1989, and I dont believe the doe network does either. But it was the Charley project that does.
NCMEC: 745741 Scott Morris Missing Since Aug 14, 1978 Missing From Indianapolis, IN DOB Dec 31, 1963 Age Now 55 Sex Male Race White Hair Color Brown Eye Color Brown Height 5'6" Weight 140 lbs Scott was last seen on August 14, 1978. Have you seen this child? SCOTT MORRIS
