Identified! TX - Lee County, Adult WhtMale, UP4513, 29-38, Nov. 1984 - James L. Hamm

Nancy Drew RN

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Found: November, 17, 1984
Sex: Male
Race: White/Caucasian
Estimated Age: 29-38 (Namus), 23-40 (TX Dept of Safety)
Estimated Year of Death: 1983-1984 (>=6 months)
Height: 5'8"-6'1"

Partial remains with soft tissue were found in a wooded area in Giddings, Lee County, Texas. Per the Texas Department of Public Safety, he has a "prominent frontal bone (above eyebrows) which immediately dips in at the bridge of his nose; nose deviates to the right slightly."

There are no comparisons or exclusions published to Namus in this case.

DDP has taken this case on, and he is "loaded into GEDmatch and undergoing genealogical analysis."

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
unDetails
Lee County John Doe 1984 - DNA Doe Project Cases
 
Lee County John Doe - Newspapers.com

At the time they were found, the bones were described in the Austin-American Statesman as a skull, a vertebra, and two long bones, and were found on property owned by one of the hunters in the group. They planned to look for further remains, but I'm unable to find any reference to their success or failure.
 
unDetails

U8710003.jpg
U8710003a.jpg


Case Number: U8710003
Agency: Lee Co SO Giddings
Date Found: 11/17/1984
Estimated Date of Death: 6 plus months prior to discovery
Cause of Death: Unknown

Race: White
Age: 23 - 40
Height: Unknown
Eye Color: Unknown

Sex: Male

Weight: Unknown
Hair Color: Unknown

City Found: Unknown
County Found: Unknown
State Found: Texas
Country Found: USA

Description:
Prominent frontal bone (above eyebrows) which immediately dips in at the bridge of his nose; nose deviates to the right slightly.

Remains were found in a wooded area in Giddings, Lee County, Texas.
 
Imo, Thomas Frank Scott bears a resemblance to this JD. His descriptors, last known location, and timeline are all reasonably close to those of Lee County JD. Thomas disappeared in Aug 1984 while JD was discovered in Nov 1984 with a PMI of approx 6 mos.


NAT_2035_2.jpg


1159DMTX- Thomas Frank Scott
Thomas Frank Scott – The Charley Project
Thomas Frank Scott - Texas Missing Person Directory

Missing Since: August 23, 1984
Location Last Seen: Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Age: 27 years old
Race: White
Gender: Male
Height: 5'7 - 5'10"
Weight: 155 - 175 lbs

Scott was last seen in Fort Worth, TX on August 23, 1984. He has not been seen nor heard from since. Foul play is suspected.

- a photo comparison.

U8710003.jpg
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U8710003a.jpg
 
His matches on the sheet are very low, so if they've identified him using forensic genealogy, that's impressive. Though, there's always the chance he had a very good match on FTDNA. Or that his NamUs was taken down for some other reason.

Hoping for an ID soon on this guy!
 
CONFIRMED SIBLING OF SKELETAL REMAINS

Names is James L Hamm

CONFIRMED SIBLING OF SKELETAL REMAINS
10/21/2020

On November 17, 1984, the Lee County Sheriff's Office was contacted regarding skeletal remains found in a field off of CR 200 approximately five miles west of Giddings, Texas by hunters in the area. These remains, consisting of only four bones, were recovered by the Lee County Sheriff's Office. The skeletal remains were sent to Texas Tech University, and examined by a Forensic Anthropologist. It was determined the skeletal remains were that of a white male, age 30 to 39. No leads were developed at that time.

In 2006, Sheriff Rodney Meyer, who originally worked the investigation, requested the assistance of the Texas Rangers with identifying the skeletal remains. The skeletal remains were submitted to the University of North Texas, where a DNA profile was extracted from the remains and ran through the missing persons and unidentified persons DNA database. No DNA match was found in the database, largely due to the database only consisting of samples submitted by families of missing persons.

In 2008, the skeletal evidence was sent to the Forensic Anthropology Center at the Texas State University (FACTS) for analysis. Having only four bones to work with, FACTS' determined, the deceased person was a Caucasian male between the ages of 20 and 50, most likely in the age range of 23 to 40.

Also in 2008, Texas Rangers forensic artist Suzanne Birdwell developed two facial reproductions of the unidentified person using the cranium. These reproductions were released to the public in hopes of developing leads on the person's identity.

In March of 2011, Sheriff Meyer and Texas Ranger Brent Barina submitted the cranium to Forensic Odonatologist Dr. David Senn of the University of Texas Health and Science Center in San Antonio. Dr. Senn extracted teeth from the cranium and sent the teeth to the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden for bomb pulse radiocarbon age testing in hopes of narrowing down the age range of the human remains. The results were received in 2013 and no leads were developed from the bomb pulse radiocarbon age testing.

In May of 2019, Sheriff Meyer and Ranger Barina consulted with Kevin Lord of the DNA Doe Project to inquire about forensic genealogy testing regarding the DNA profile from the human remains extracted by the University of North Texas. In August, In May of 2019, Sheriff Meyer and Ranger Barina consulted with Kevin Lord of the DNA Doe Project to inquire about forensic genealogy testing regarding the DNA profile from the human remains extracted by the University of North Texas. In August, DNA from the University of North Texas was sent to HudsonAlpha Discovery (Huntsville, AL) for whole genome sequencing, with Dr. Gregory Magoon subsequently handling bioinformatics. Data was uploaded to GEDmatch / FamilyTreeDNA and a team of volunteers began investigative genetic genealogy research.

In June of 2020, the DNA Doe Project provided a potential relative to the human remains. The DNA Doe Project reported the human remains may be James L. Hamm and potential relative was believed to be a brother, Eugene Hamm, living in Florida. Sheriff Meyer and Ranger Barina contacted the relative and learned his brother, James Hamm, had been missing since 1984. The Lee County Sheriff's Office in Florida assisted with obtaining a DNA sample from Eugene Hamm. This DNA sample was sent to DNA Solutions in Oklahoma where a DNA profile was developed. The DNA profile developed from Eugene Hamm was sent to the University of North Texas to be compared to the DNA extracted from the human remains.

In October of 2020, the University of North Texas confirmed the human remains were a biological sibling of Eugene Hamm. On October 15, 2020, Justice of the Peace Michal York held an inquest on the remains. The remains will be turned over to Phillips and Luckey Funeral Home in Giddings.
 
Me neither. Ive seen a radiocarbon lab once and it was all strange machines.
But radiocarbon dating has quite a large date range (used to be +/- 25 years, now its i think about +/-12), i dont think it is helpful for recent Does.
I am an archeologist and we use C14 dating to determine whether a building was built first half of 11th century or rather second half or 12th century.
But for recent Does that are quite sensitive to be dated exactly, it wont work.

I’ve never heard of this before: “bomb pulse radiocarbon age testing”
 
To my understanding he was never reported missing. Not a surprise as he was 35 y.o. when he went missing and it was in 80-ies. And his parents died before he went missing. Very sad. R.I.P. Mr Hamm.
 

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