MD MD - Crofton, UnkSex/Age/Race, UP54693, human finger found on vehicle, Oct'18

[Fuuro]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
Case Information


Case Numbers
NCMEC Number --
ME/C Case Number 18-12121
Demographics
SexUnsure
Race / EthnicityUncertain
Possible First Name --
Possible Middle Name--
Possible Last Name--
Possible Nickname--
Estimated Age GroupCannot Determine
Estimated Age Range (Years)--
Estimated Year of Death--
Estimated PMI--
Height Cannot Estimate
WeightCannot Estimate
Circumstances
TypeUnidentified Deceased
Date FoundOctober 12, 2018
NamUs Case CreatedJanuary 16, 2019
ME/C QA Reviewed--
Location Found Map
General Location -- Crofton, Maryland
CountyAnne Arundel County
GPS Coordinates--
Circumstances of Recovery Finger found on vehicle
Details of Recovery


Inventory of Remains --
Condition of RemainsNot recognizable - Traumatic injuries
Physical Description
Hair Color Unknown or Completely Bald
Head Hair Description --
Body Hair Description --
Facial Hair Description --
Left Eye Color Unknown or Missing
Right Eye Color Unknown or Missing
Eye Description --
_____________________________________________________________

This is probably one of the strangest UID cases that I've discovered in a while. I can't find any news articles or anything discussing this discovery, which is odd, considering this happened less than eight months ago.

I'm not even sure that this could even be considered an unidentified decedent case. The person who owned this finger could very well be alive, IMO. I'm wondering if there's evidence that the finger belonged to a dead person.

I also am at a loss when it comes to explaining how the finger might have gotten on the vehicle. Maybe birds (vultures?) could have picked it up and ended up dropping it on the vehicle from the sky. That could suggest that an entire body was/is out there somewhere decomposing.

 

[Richard]

Indeed a strange sounding case. It would be good to know more about the vehicle and where/how this finger was found. Was there damage to the vehicle? Was it in an accident or hit and run?

Body parts do turn up sometimes in cars taken to junk yards after an accident.

While it is possible that some bird might have dropped the finger on the vehicle, I doubt seriously if it was a vulture. Vultures are very efficient and thorough in how they eat dead animals, and always leave the bones picked clean. They don't take pieces away with them.

 

[Melt71]

Well this is bizarre. I wonder if it's a gangland warning from one group to another?

 

[John/Jane Doe]

I was searching and came across this person who disappeared 1 day before the finger was found.

Melanie Faith Meleney
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Do you think it could be a potential match?

 

[Melt71]

@John/Jane Doe looks like a good possibility, her missing location is only 13 miles from where the body part was found.

 

[ipa]

Melanie Meleney's remains were found, however

$13,000 reward offered in case of missing woman whose remains were found in 2018

A $13,000 reward is being offered for information in the case of a missing woman whose remains were found in Glen Burnie last year.

www.wmar2news.com

 

[5W's]

Reminds me of the Diane Augat case from Florida. If this is still on NamUs there is a reason why its there. Why does it list as "Condition of RemainsNot recognizable" - Traumatic injuries, other than the obvious that its not with the body it belongs to. Is that significant? The reason I ask this is how do they know its traumatic and not an accident. Or traumatic injuries caused by an accident and the person is missing? Or does NamUs have unedintified remains listed offically even if it one piece, I guess bone fragments would fall under this also.

 

[MarziPanda]

This is so weird. Might be an interesting one for Othram or another lab to try, since it might be hard to get DNA from what I assume at this point is just finger bones - unless they preserved some of it. I wonder to what extent IDing the person will tell us what happened and how the finger got there.

 

[5W's]

The possibilities could be as mentioned in another post a bird or scavenger dropping it onto the car. Maybe the bird decided there's not enough to scavenge so let it go as it was flying and it happened to land on the car. A bird or scavenger in a tree was picking the finger clean and when finished let it go and it dropped onto the car below. Maybe in the windshield wiper area the finger bone was stuck and it happend that somehow the upon turning the wipers on/off and over many time it finally got loose enough to land where it did by a little bit of momentum caused by the windshield wipers. Or someone deliberately put it there, but why. It looks like a residential street so a private security camera could catch who was close to the car as they walked by. Unless they were unrecognisable with a hoodie. Maybe the car was parked there for a while and it wasn't noticed until the time it was found (the finger bone.)

 

[5W's]

I'm surprised there is no information. Wasn't a DNA test done. Or is it that resources aren't going to be used? I am surprised. don't LE want to know who this is. Maybe this could be related to a serious crime? Wow.

 

[MarziPanda]

I'm surprised there is no information. Wasn't a DNA test done. Or is it that resources aren't going to be used? I am surprised. don't LE want to know who this is. Maybe this could be related to a serious crime? Wow.

Since it's not a full body, maybe it doesn't hold the interest (or the funding) of a full on murder investigation...

 

[azure]

I own a horse farm and have had someone on the farm lose a finger in an accident. We found it and took it to the hospital, but it was fairly hard to find. I also frequently find small animal corpses laying on the jumps in my arena, dropped by birds. I think it's quite likely that the finger was dropped by a bird.

As for whether the person whose finger was found was dead or alive, I'd say both are possibilities. It could have been lost in an accident in a live person or detached as part of postmortem changes or animal activity in a deceased person.

 

[5W's]

Since it's not a full body, maybe it doesn't hold the interest (or the funding) of a full on murder investigation...

I agree that's probably what the issue is. I have my own opinions on this subject. But briefly I will say what if this was a missing person who they had spent resources on or a murder investigation that they had to spend resources on already, perhaps this could give some closure to family or even LE will have an idea that the person could be deceased.

 

[Goecke]

Reminds me of the Diane Augat case from Florida. If this is still on NamUs there is a reason why its there. Why does it list as "Condition of RemainsNot recognizable" - Traumatic injuries, other than the obvious that its not with the body it belongs to. Is that significant? The reason I ask this is how do they know its traumatic and not an accident. Or traumatic injuries caused by an accident and the person is missing? Or does NamUs have unedintified remains listed offically even if it one piece, I guess bone fragments would fall under this also.

'Traumatic injuries' is NamUs lingo for remains being impossible to visually recognize due to trauma (as opposed to decomposition, animal activity etc). Nothing more, nothing less. The trauma could be of accidental or homicidal nature, or it could have occured after death. So it doesn't mean that this is a homicide. Hope this helps!

 

[dotr]

Melanie Meleney's remains were found, however

$13,000 reward offered in case of missing woman whose remains were found in 2018

A $13,000 reward is being offered for information in the case of a missing woman whose remains were found in Glen Burnie last year.

www.wmar2news.com

Apparently just one body part and MM is considered still ''missing, imo.

MD - MD- Melanie Faith Meleney, 45, 'GLEN BURNIE, 13 October 2018 *single body part found @ Marley Creek behind Church of the Good Shepherd*

https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/missing-melanie-meleney-anniversary/ OCTOBER 14, 2019 ''GLEN BURNIE, Md. (WJZ) -- It's been just over a year since a Glen Burnie woman was reported missing. Despite police identifying partial human remains found in the area as hers, family and friends are...

www.websleuths.com

 

[PembrokeLove]

I agree that's probably what the issue is. I have my own opinions on this subject. But briefly I will say what if this was a missing person who they had spent resources on or a murder investigation that they had to spend resources on already, perhaps this could give some closure to family or even LE will have an idea that the person could be deceased.

This.

I would think that any remains would be DNA tested, though not right away. Case in point - I live near where Lindsey Baum disappeared in Washington State. It’s still a huge deal here because that kind of crime is just unheard of in the McCleary/Elma area. She has been declared deceased because of the type or remains recovered on her - finding a finger or even an arm doesn’t necessarily make someone dead - but when the remains were first found, they sat in storage for a good long while. You see, our state crime lab is SWAMPED here. I personally know of DUI cases where the blood work has been out for 2+ years while they try to force people to plead out. When remains are found, there is a criteria to determine where their spots are in line. The only two ways to jump to the top of the line are if the remains are part of an active investigation or if they are identified as belonging to a child.

So, when the remains that were eventually found to be Lindsey’s were first located, they weren’t even picked up. Hunters saw them and reported it, but police did not consult with them and failed to find them. The following year, more hunters discovered them and they were finally retrieved.

We don’t know what all of the remains found were, but what we do know is that no one thought for a second they were Lindsey, as they were on the other side of the state. We do know there were some skull fragments and other bones to suggest the owner had not lived, but what they had did not include a pelvis or enough of the skull to determine that this was a child on site. So, they were boxed up, numbered, and put in storage.

As other current cases were cleared and the lab had time, she stayed in the box and slowly moved up. Nearly two years later they tested the bones and got a mitochondrial match to her mother.

I know that’s long and ranty, but it’s specifically why all of these partial human remains ought to be tested, even if we don’t know who they belong to or if the person is dead. That could be a live persons finger, yes; but how are we supposed to know if it’s someone who has been reported as missing or if they’re still just out trucking around if we’re not going to at least test it? What even is the point of logging it into the system, reporting on it, and keeping it in a box on a shelf?

 

[Sara1972]

Melanie Meleney's remains were found, however

$13,000 reward offered in case of missing woman whose remains were found in 2018

A $13,000 reward is being offered for information in the case of a missing woman whose remains were found in Glen Burnie last year.

www.wmar2news.com

Only a leg was found

 

[PembrokeLove]

Only a leg was found

At least that means they have her dna on file; I wonder why they haven’t tested the dna on the finger, if indeed they haven’t. That would be a pretty easy rule in/out to get out of the way.

 

[Sara1972]

The Detective told me her DNA is in database. But would not answer when I asked him if the finger was checked. He only answers to certain things, he never tells me anything about the case. But I definitely noticed the this as I have a Namus account I made for Melanie and was looking around.

 

[John/Jane Doe]

Only a leg was found

Then there could still be a chance that the finger belongs to Melanie.