From
Namus UP 16707
“Circumstances of Recovery
Found 100 feet out on jetty at Pepper Avenue, Brigantine, NJ.”
I always like to have some visual idea of the terrain and surroundings of where remains are found, especially in unusual circumstances such as this case.
Using Google Maps to search Brigantine N.J. and it’s surrounds I could unfortunately not find Pepper Avenue or even a Culpepper Avenue.
Happily the Jetty is conspicuously labeled as a Brigantine landmark. It appears to be made of large boulders with concrete reinforcement. The jetty extends out from a riprap breakwater running along Absecon Inlet, and juts approximately 420 feet out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Here is a promotional website for the area.
Brigantine's Jetty Beach
According to the link the Jetty is a popular place to fish. One can drive a 4-wheel vehicle on the beach right up to it, and can walk out along the Jetty “with the Atlantic crashing on both sides.”
I wonder how some skeletonized remains of a teenager could be found at a popular beach so close to the height of summer (June 27th)?
What follows here is strictly my personal take:
I do not believe that the bones were left on the jetty as an initial place of disposal. The most likely scenario is that the Doe was either an accidental or suicide drowning, less likely a victim of foul play. In any regard the body entered the ocean somewhere along the Atlantic coast many months, or possibly even years before it’s discovery.
Moving with time, winds and currents, the remains eventually disarticulated and scattered along the sea floor. Some of this UID’s bones were possibly brought inshore by the tides to the area close to the Brigantine Jetty. As the tides went out, the bones could have become snagged among boulders of the structure, and we’re discovered lodged near the waterline, only about 100 feet from the beach.
NamUs does not specify which bones were recovered, but they DO state those not found. Again, from NamUs:
“Inventory of Remains
Head not recovered
Torso not recovered
One or more limbs not recovered
One or both hands not recovered”
Nothing is mentioned about the UID’s feet, therefore I am speculating that at least one foot was among the remains recovered. It is not unheard of for decedents’ feet to be carried long distances by ocean currents and to be found exclusive of the other remains. This is especially true when the feet are clad in tennis shoes (trainers). The tennis shoes provide both buoyancy and protection from the elements and scavengers. Sometimes only a sock and foot bones are found in a recovered shoe, but in other cases the ankle bones, tibia and fibula are still attached.
Unfortunately, there is no mention of shoes found with these remains. It is possible that foot bones could have dislodged from a shoe or sock after being caught among the jagged crevices of the Jetty.
Whichever bones that were found apparently contained enough growth plate information that the ME could give a narrow age range for the decedent (14 - 16).
More info on the floating feet of the Salish Sea:
The Curious Tale of the Salish Sea Feet
Included are Google Earth thumbnails of the Brigantine Beach Jetty and my estimation of the point on the Jetty where the remains were found.
